45 Underrated Religious College Towns Across America You'll Fall in Love With

39. Hays, Kansas: Monastic Calm Meets Prairie Faith

Hays is more than prairie farmland—it’s a deeply spiritual community centered around Fort Hays State University and the historic St. Fidelis Basilica, nicknamed “The Cathedral of the Plains.” Just outside town in Victoria, this stone Romanesque church rises unexpectedly from wheat fields, a stunning testament to Catholic devotion on the frontier. Hays blends rural steadiness with academic inquiry and heartfelt Midwestern hospitality. Monastic orders, German Catholic traditions, and small-town Protestant churches intersect here, creating a quiet but rich interdenominational fabric. It’s a place where the landscape opens wide—and so does the soul.