The Pilgrimage for Restoration (also known as the "Auriesville Pilgrimage") was founded in 1996 as an annual walking pilgrimage in northeastern New York. Not to be missed, each year it draws hundreds of traditional Catholics who walk through the picturesque Adirondacks, a massive six-million-acre park in upstate New York.
In the Footsteps of Martyrs
St. Isaac Jogues, St. René Goupil, and St. Jean de Lalande are the first three U.S. saints.
In Canada there is the National Shrine to the Canadian Martyrs in Midland, Ontario, the site of the Jesuits' missionary work among the Huron. In the United States, the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs located in Auriesville is where these pilgrims journey to on pilgrimage.
Readers are strongly encouraged to participate. The pilgrimage is held every year in September. To register, please click here.
Pilgrims walk from the Lake of the Blessed Sacrament at Lake George Village to the Shrine of Our Lady's Martyrs at Auriesville. This "Chartres-like" pilgrimage takes its inspiration from the annual Chartres pilgrimage in France. Similarly, five words best describe the experience: "the agony and the ecstasy."
Participants walk near and along the 61-mile pathway the saints followed as captives on the way to execution. The martyrs walked under torture for over twenty-eight days. The route takes the pilgrims three days, a penitential trek full of joyous prayer.
Each day the Traditional Latin Mass is offered, the spiritual highlight of each day.
The purpose is to honor Christ the King, to pray for the restoration of His reign in the family and civil society, and to make reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The route covers 20 miles per day in the course of three days.
Pilgrims form 'brigades,' similar to the 'chapters' of the Chartres Pilgrimage. Each brigade consist of 25-40 participants, accompanied by a chaplain to help lead prayers and hear confessions.
Along the way, pilgrims pray, sing, read meditations, receive spiritual counsel, and take turns carrying banners and flags.
Meals and taken together and volunteers transport those who cannot walk further in vans. Pilgrims camp two nights in tents. Trucks transport their luggage. Volunteers help provide the meals. First-Aid stations are manned by helpers and bottled water is handed out freely.
The Final Destination
The pilgrims begin their walk along the shores of Lake of the Blessed Sacrament, the name given to this beautiful lake by St. Isaac Jogues, one of the martyrs. This body of water was called by the Indians Horicon, now known as Lake George. The pilgrimage ends at the former site of the Indian camp, nine miles west of Auriesville, in Ossernenon.
Indeed, the final destination is the site of the Mohawk village, the National Shrine of of Our Lady of Martyrs at Auriesville. This is one of the most significant pilgrimage destinations on the North American continent. It is dedicated to the three Jesuit missioners who died here as Christian martyrs, murdered at the Mohawk Indian village of Ossernenon in the years 1642 and 1646.
For many years this was a Jesuit-run shrine. The original shrine church was constructed in 1884. In 2017 the Jesuits gave up their control, and the shrine is now owned and operated by a nonprofit called the Friends of Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine, Inc.
The pilgrimage concludes with Solemn High celebrated in the shrine's main chapel, a massive 'Coliseum' church completed in 1931. Famous in its day for being part of an avant-garde movement to build modern churches in the round, it seats 6,500 pilgrims with standing room for an additional 3,500.
 |
Mass is celebrated upon the dramatic rustic four-sided high altar, a central arrangement made by local craftsman of timber in the style of frontier construction, with cut pine vertical logs in a palisaded pattern. The logs have crossed carved in them, in imitation of a a practice of St. Isaac. This altar structure rests under the triple-tiered ceiling, designed in honor of the Blessed Trinity. The sanctuary is placed in the center, facing the four cardinal directions where the Gospel is preached.
One of the most fascinating features of the altar is that there are more than one altars here. There is even one high above the palisaded structure, under the large central crucifix, seen in the historic mage below with Mass being celebrated atop in the presence of a prelate who sits below in choir. This is called the 'high central altar.' Other altars are located below it.
This unique church is rich with symbolism. It has long been nicknamed the "temple of seventy-two doors" in memory of the seventy-two disciples sent out by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Further, the interior has twelve main aisles and twelve distinct sections, representing the twelve apostles. The steel support columns are marked with crude crosses and the rustic name "Jesus," recalling how St. Isaac carved the Holy Name into trees across the forests.
The chapel is set on a hill overlooking the Mohawk Valley on the Mohawk River. Its soil is sacred. This site was a place of captivity, torture, martyrdom, and finally one of negotiations, reconciliation, and peace, followed by intense missionary activity and conversion that has lasted to this day.
In the end, the native Indians were converted to the one, true Faith. The exact site of martyrdom is said to be located where the outdoor Pietà statue can be seen under the white domed rotunda gazebo. This marks the corner of the palisades of the old Indian village.
Before the ten acres of land was purchased by a Jesuit priest in 1884, it had been a farm owned by local farmers, the Putnan family. Today it is a place of international pilgrimage.
The Jesuit Saints and Their Companions
St. Isaac Jogues was present with the first martyr at the time of his slaying. They were French missionary priests who set out from Canada, traveling south into upstate New York. The Mohawks captured them en route and killed St. René Goupil, a doctor and lay Jesuit brother, who was caught teaching the sign of the cross to a boy.
He died on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. His last words uttered were the Holy Name of Jesus, as he had planned in case of martyrdom. St. Isaac Jogues was a witness to his death and gave him absolution before the brave Jesuit martyr expired.
The two had been traveling with a group of about forty persons. They were all tortured. Half their number were Hurons who were converts to the Catholic Faith. The Mohawks tortured and killed them. St. Goupil was the first Jesuit martyr of Canada and one of three officially declared martyrs killed on US territory.
The general place of martyrdom was the site of the current shrine where the pilgrimage concludes.
St. Isaac Jogues had been kept prisoner by the Indians for some thirteen months before he was ransomed and gained his freedom. He returned home to France. But the story does not end there. He retuned to New France in the spring of 1644 to minister to the same Indians.
In 1646, St. Isaac, accompanied by a lay Jesuit missioner, St. Jean de Lalande, was sent to negotiate peace with the Iroquois. All his companions fled as he approached Ossernenon, except for his Jesuit companion. Near Lake George they was captured and beaten and taken to the village. St. Isaac was martyred there on October 18, 1646. The next day his colleague, St. Jean de Lalande, was also killed.
Both glorious martyrs had been struck down by tomahawks. They were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and canonized in 1930. Their shared feast day is October 19 in the General Roman Calendar and September 26 in Canada.
Pilgrims Are Inspired by the Martyrs
The pilgrims who participate in the compelling walk are inspired by the story of the martyrs of New France. They seek to deepen their Faith through an encounter with their story and missionary zeal. On a path of discovery, participants set out on the 60-mile walk. Most train for months. Everyone is prepared for pain.
The story of the martyrs lives on. Between 1642-1649, there were eight Jesuits canonized as the North American Martyrs -- who died at locations in both the US and Canada. Their home base was Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Canada. The missionaries were all ritually tortured and killed on various dates in 17th-century southern Ontario and upstate New York.
St. Isaac Jogues, St. René Goupil, and St. Jean de Lalande are the first three U.S. saints.
God bless and reward the organizers and all who participate in this epic walk, truly a part of the fabric of American history. Graces abound to all who join this difficult journey. To those who have done the walk, no explanation is necessary. The final destination is the resurrection that comes after the crucifixion. Pilgrimage is a metaphor for life: we journey to God and aim to find ourselves after a life of trails and faith in the New Jerusalem -- Heaven.
May the North American Martyrs and their saintly companions be praised!
-------
Why not also consider subscribing monthly/yearly to Liturgical Arts Journal? Choose the amount for yourself. Your support of LAJ and its writers makes all the difference.
