Indiana football: Holy water sprinkled at Big Ten championship, Rose Bowl
Watch Indiana grad sprinkle Bloomington holy water before Big Ten title, Rose Bowl
- An Indiana University fan sprinkled holy water on the field before the Big Ten championship game.
- The water came from a well at the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center in Bloomington.
- This water is believed by some to have spiritual and healing properties, with several cures attributed to it.
When photographer Garrett Ewald flew in from New York for the Big Ten Football championship at Lucas Oil Stadium, he had no plans of pouring an 8-ounce bottle of holy water onto the Indiana end zone, water pumped from a well at a Catholic retreat center in Bloomington where the liquid has long been touted as having spiritual and healing properties.
He, admittedly, was a tad nervous that “someone might tackle me and call Homeland Security or something” as he nonchalantly sprinkled the holy water on Indiana football’s sideline and end zone before they took on Ohio State.
But his heart got the best of him. His roots got the best of him; he’s an IU grad. The idea of that water got the best of him. “What the hell?” said Ewald, who was on the field to shoot photos for The Bloomingtonian. “You never know.”
Earlier that day, Ewald had visited Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center a few miles west of Bloomington, located on a hilly, lush green, peaceful property where people have gathered to pray, to heal and to attend retreats for more than 30 years.
Ewald was brought there by his friend and longtime IU senior associate athletics director Harold Mauro, whose grandchild is buried on the property. For years, Mauro has been devoted to the center, doing maintenance and upkeep at the place he and those who love it call “the farm.”
Mauro not only spent 22 years as athletics administrator at IU, he played football for IU the last time the team made the Rose Bowl in 1968. He was a part of nine of IU’s 10 bowl games as a player, assistant coach or administrator.
“And so we were there with Harold visiting. My other friends were maybe a little bit more religious than I am, but I went with an open mind and was happy to see how much joy it brought to Harold,” Ewald said. “He mentioned in passing how the well on the property has had some moderately documented examples of miraculous healing. And he insisted on giving us (water), so he gave us a little plastic jug of water when we left.”
At some point on his drive to Lucas Oil Stadium from the farm, Ewald had an idea. “I said, ‘You know, I’ll bring some in and I’ll sprinkle it on the field.’” He dumped out an 8-ounce bottle of regular water, put the holy water in its place and made his move.
“I was trying to be a little bit surreptitious, so I walked holding the bottle in one hand, the lid just slightly open, and then my other hand had my cellphone,” he said. “I just kind of walked down behind the bench, dribbling water out as I went. And then I walked across the Indiana end zone as well, sprinkling the rest of the water as I went. And I let Harold know that I had done it, and he was like, ‘That’s great.’”
Mauro didn’t ask him to do it, but Ewald thought it would make him happy.
Then, Ohio State missed that 27-yard field goal wide left with less than 3 minutes to play, which could have tied the game 13-13. It was missed it in the end zone where Ewald had sprinkled the water.
IU walked away with its first outright Big Ten championship since 1945.
Of course, as faith usually goes, no one had any proof that water had done anything. Few even knew of Ewald’s sprinkling. But those who did, and those who believed, were all in on making sure that water followed IU as far as their magical football playoff run took them.
They made sure the holy water from the farm was in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. And it will be there Friday for the Peach Bowl.
And should IU make it to the national championship, the holy water will flow there as well.
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‘Our Lady was like the 12th man on the field’
Fr. Terrance Chartier didn’t find out the water from his farm had blessed the IU portion of Lucas Oil’s field until after the game when Mauro’s wife sent him a video of Ewald pouring it out at the stadium.
“And I thought of Our Lady as like the 12th man on the field,” said Chartier, a priest with the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, who is stationed at the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center. “I thought she was there, especially with the field goal. Indoors, no wind, no rain, 27-yard field goal.
“I watched almost in disbelief as the kicker totally missed. I noted afterwards that the kicker was kicking into the same end zone with Indiana’s name on it, same end zone where Indiana had scored their touchdown in the third quarter and the same end zone that I saw Harold’s friend sprinkling the farm water in that video.”
Chartier scrapped the homily he had prepared on habits for the following Sunday morning and replaced it with an IU football-themed homily instead, which explained more about the water on his farm and what had happened in Indianapolis the weekend before.
“For those of you who don’t know, the water from the well here at the farm has reportedly been the cause of a number of miraculous cures,” Chartier said in his homily.
One of the biggest and most recent happened in January 2024 when Eric Johnson of New Albany, who had been suffering from a neuromuscular disease for nearly eight years and had a permanent disability, started drinking the water.
“He was actually cured of it after drinking water from the farm,” Chartier said. “His neurologist told him that there was no medical or scientific explanation for his cure.”
Chartier points to a number of similar stories regarding the farm water, including a spiritual directee of his in Norway who drank the water and believes she was cured of her lymphoma because of it. There are dozens of other, smaller, cures the water has brought to people, including cataracts, aches and pain and emotional distress.
“So, I knew the farm water and I knew it’s holy and I believe it was given by God to help heal people. But to help IU win the Big Ten championship? I hadn’t thought about that,” Chartier said.
But then he started thinking about Mauro, who has been so faithful to the farm, about his ties with IU and the fact that he is the one who gave Ewald the water, never expecting it would be used for IU football.
“I think she gave that victory last Saturday to Harold as an early Christmas gift, to thank him for his faithfulness and for all the good that he’s done for the farm,” Chartier said in his homily. “And I think she gave the victory also as a gift to her other son, the IU quarterback [Fernando Mendoza], who is a very faithful Catholic, too. And even as a gift to her other faithful children who were on the team.
“So may she, our lady of victories, continue to grant us all the spiritual victories that we need in this life, and even some of those other victories which are a sign and an encouragement to us, her children.”
Why is the water at Mother of the Redeemer considered holy?
Jim and Ruth Ann Wade, both longtime educators in Bloomington’s public schools, made way for the retreat center in 1993 when they gave up their home and farm, and dedicated it for Mother of the Redeemer.
Ruth Ann is a locutionist, Chartier said, someone who hears directly from the Lord and from Mary, the mother of Jesus.
“And that was one of the first things that they had asked for, that the farm would be turned into a retreat center,” he said. “And she was told, among other things, that the water on the property is holy and it could be used for blessing people and healings as well.”
But not all the water on the property is holy, only the water that flows from the green pump.
“The Lord Jesus told Ruth Ann that all the water under the original 40 acres, green pump only, is holy water and blessed by God and it has healing powers which God uses as an instrument of healing if he so chooses,” according to Mother of the Redeemer. “This pump is the only pump on the land that comes directly from the natural waters. Other water on the property is city water. Simply put, yes it is holy water blessed by God and by a priest.”
The water comes from a well located at the bottom of the hill on the property next to the Wades’ home. People travel from all over to get jugs of the water, which volunteers at the center pump. Visitors are also welcome to pump their own water and, after Chartier’s homily, there’s been quite an uptick in travelers to the well.
As for Ewald, he is making sure a bit of that water ends up on IU’s end zone for the rest of the season.
He made it happen at the Rose Bowl, albeit, he only had about two tablespoons to sprinkle. That water was brought from Mother of the Redeemer by a priest close with Mendoza and other players on the team.
Fr. Patrick Hyde, a Dominican priest and pastor of the St. Paul Catholic Center, held a private mass for players in Pasadena the night before the Rose Bowl. Mendoza, a devout Catholic, credited Hyde and the center for supporting his faith when he won the Heisman trophy.
Ewald met Hyde that night (the priest was wearing an IU sweatshirt and backpack) to secure the water.
“It was a little tiny bottle. They were nervous about how much they could bring, so it was like maybe a couple tablespoons of water,” Ewald said. “So I was a little bit more judicious in my sprinklings to make it last.” That meant no sprinkling on the sideline by the Indiana bench, just on its end zone.
“And we had so much rain,” Ewald said. “I was kind of like, you know, theoretically, it was getting diluted by all the rainwater.” But IU won, so it seemed to work.
Father Hyde will bring Ewald more water Friday night in Atlanta and the IU grad from the 1980s and one of the most veteran photographers of IU football will do his thing again.
Ewald’s just worried about one minor issue: This story will be published before the Peach Bowl.
“Well, hopefully they won’t detain me when I come in,” he said, “saying, ‘You’re the guy who’s been sprinkling water on our fields, damn it.’”
Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.
