The Shrine of the North American Martyrs – 2017

(Above) The concluding mass of the 2017 pilgrimage for the restoration at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. (This photo courtesy of the Extraordinary Form in the Albany Diocese Facebook page)

This year,  we could only visit the shrine the day before the pilgrimage mass. As always, these parts of upstate New York exhibit a melancholy magic around this time of year. In a way, the Shrine is best seen when visitors are few – that is most of the time nowadays. Above, the silent ravine is a sacred and meditative spot.

(Above) The coliseum seen from a nearby overlook. Below, the interior of the architecturally uninspiring and virtually empty coliseum.

It has not always been so. (Above) a “full house” in 1959 with Cardinal Cushing. (Below) More recently, on October 21, 2012, 5500 of the 6500 seats were filled for a mass commemorating the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha. She was born in the Indian village here.

Wandering around the grounds, the pilgrim encounters a host of other shrines and devotions accumulated since the 1880’s. Some have been recently restored. (Below) The tiny original chapel prepared for the Traditional mass.

(Above and below) the first martyrdom – that of Rene Goupil – occurred here.

One recent positive development is the departure of the Jesuit order which had managed the Shrine from its beginning. In the last years of its control, the grounds and buildings had deteriorated in many spots. Reversing years of practice, Traditionalist pilgrimages were either excluded from the coliseum or banned from the shrine entirely (like the FSSPX). Indeed, at the end of 2015 the Shrine was at the brink of closing – after Kateri Tekakwitha had just been canonized and after millions had been raised that year  for urgent restorations! But now a separate not-for-profit corporation – with the support of the Albany diocese – has taken over most of the Shrine. They are working hard to make  the Shrine once again a nationally known center of pilgrimage. Improvements are visible in many areas. And, as you can see from the first photograph of this post, already a more welcoming reception is being given to Traditionalist Catholics. The only fly in the ointment seems to be the threatened installation of a grotesque sculpture by a “modern master.”

(Below) The Jesuit cemetery. The Jesuits have retained control of this and the Ravine. Cardinal Avery Dulles is buried here.

One legacy of the Jesuits was the sale of the Jesuit residence/retreat house to a Chinese religious group –  the “World Peace & Health  Organization” (WPHO).  Indeed, they aim to transform this corner of New York State into a center of their activities – among other things, they have acquired two former Catholic churches in nearby Amsterdam (St. Michael’s and St. Casimir’s) and have converted them into  Buddhist temples.

WPHO have transformed the former Jesuit building with towers,  gables and gates in the traditional Chinese style. Their “great wall” now overlooks the graves of the Jesuits and the grounds of the Shrine of the Catholics.

Is this our future – the ever increasing number of graves of the priests of one of the main Catholic religious orders contrasted with the growing complex of a Buddhist sect? Or will the new managers of the Shrine succeed in reversing the developments of the last decades?

Additional note: We recommend a posting by “Florentius” in the blog Gloria Romanorum which fills in the history of the purchase of the shrine lands from the Jesuits. http://gloriaromanorum.blogspot.com/2010/09/buddhist-temple-at-auriesville.html