- Cross in the Woods
On 15 September 2006, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) declared the Cross in the Woods, as a Catholic shrine located at 7078 M-68 in Indian River, Michigan.
At 55 feet tall, it is the second-largest crucifix in the world. The Crucifix has become one of the most famous and most frequently visited and popular shrines in all of Michigan. A large wooden cross and a bronze figure of Christ is the main attraction of the shrine. It was made by sculptor Marshall Fredericks. The site also includes outdoor and indoor churches, numerous smaller shrines, and a nun doll museum. The Cross in the Woods is open 365 days a year for pilgrims. It holds Masses every day, year round. Between 275,000 and 325,000 people come to visit the Cross in the Woods Shrine each year.
Originally called the Indian River Catholic Shrine, the site became Cross in the Woods in 1983.
- Crucifix in Bardstown, Kentucky
The crucifix is an outdoor sculpture built in 1986 in Kentucky, US. It is sixty feet high, “welded of stainless steel rods, a garment of wire-cloth, hair of copper.” It battles and barely bests a more traditional rendition of a crucifix, the 55-footer in Indian River, Michigan. The one in Bardstown overlooks a cemetery, and is spindly, like a ship’s mast.
- Crucifix in Columbia
The largest crucifix in the world belongs to a statue in South America. In the town of Huila, about ten miles outside the city of Neiva, Colombia, a gargantuan 262-foot-long crucifix rests atop a chapel at a religious theme park and tourist destination called the “Blood of Christ Spiritual Park (Parque Espiritual La Sangre de Cristo).”
The park attracts religious tourists, who, in addition to attending Mass at the chapel under the giant Christ sculpture, come to enjoy the region’s natural beauty, and the theme park’s other attractions, especially during Holy Week and other important days on the Catholic Calendar.
One note: since the crucifix in Colombia is actually lying flat rather than standing perpendicular to the ground, the Michigan “Cross in the Woods” crucifix may in fact be the tallest in the world even though, measured from head to toe, the theme park statue is clearly taller.