A Loretto Labyrinth

Written by Ashley Doughty. The Loretto Heritage Center is pleased to host Ashley as our summer intern. Ashley is spending the summer living at the Valley House and working with the personal papers Sr. Maureen McCormack. She decided to write about the labyrinth after stumbling upon it during a walk one evening. Ashley comes to us from Paducah, KY. She is currently the Bookmobile Coordinator at the McCracken County Public Library and is working toward a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

Down a gravel path, tucked in a silent, contemplative wood and between wooden cabins, one can find a simple sign with the word “labyrinth”; the sign is an invitation to begin a journey, both physically and spiritually, to the middle.

The word labyrinth, a borrowing from Latin, is found in writing as far back as 1387, in a translation of a Greek mythology. According to lore, a labyrinth was built with twists and turns and no clear path, like a maze, to keep the monstrous Minotaur contained. Later, the term was used to refer to “a structure (esp. one consisting of a single convoluted path) set into the floor of a church with tiles or stones…one walked by Christians as a symbolic pilgrimage; any various similar representations made on the ground or cut into turf for the purpose of meditation or other spiritual practices.”

Our labyrinth, in the heart of the Cedars of Peace retreat area, dates back to 2008, with an idea from a volunteer worker, David Tribble. Having built a labyrinth before, David was able to create the layout and even bring in volunteers from his church to begin construction. The pattern used for this labyrinth is the Chartres labyrinth, albeit smaller in size. This particular labyrinth, found in the Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France, is from 1201 AD.

This layout, seeming straightforward enough, begins with the path leading directly toward the center – but instead, the walker goes through a series of winding turns in each quadrant, alternating between arriving closer to the center and then farther away. There is, however, only one path to follow in order to arrive at the center, allowing the walker to focus on their own thoughts, prayers, mantra, or concern.

Building a smaller version at the Cedars of Peace, outdoors, required some ingenuity. The original boundaries of the labyrinth were made of cedar log ends, leftover from the construction of the log cabins found at the entrance of the retreat. These log ends were bound together with wire and thoughtfully placed to guide the meditative walker to the center. Like all things, the cedar log ends began to return to the earth, and in 2023, work began to replace the cedar log ends with a more enduring material.

At the edge of the Loretto property, next to KY 152, is a stone fence in disrepair. While it can’t be proven for sure, it is believed the fence was erected with the use of enslaved labor. And as a way to honor that work given to the Loretto Community, stones from that fence were relocated to more permanently mark the boundaries of the labyrinth. This change in the labyrinth adds a new weight, a new dimension to consider while walking; there is time to reflect on those persons whose experiences were vastly different from what we live.

The labyrinth is just one more way for those staying at the Cedars of Peace to find the spirit within each of us and relate that to the world around us. “By going inward, we can see the connected nature of everything around us.”

Thank you to Susan Classen, CoL, for sharing her knowledge about the history of the labyrinth at the Cedars of Peace.

All photos are courtesy of the Loretto Archives unless marked otherwise.

References

“Labyrinth, n. Meanings, Etymology and More | Oxford English Dictionary.” n.d. Accessed July 20, 2025. https://www.oed.com/dictionary/labyrinth_n

“The Labyrinth.” n.d. Cathédrale de Chartres. Accessed July 20, 2025. https://www.cathedralechartres.org/en/cathedrale/monument/the-labyrinth/.