relics

St. Francis Xavier Mission Church in Kahnawake, Quebec

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When I was studying Catholicism and becoming Catholic, I wanted to know which saint shared my birthday. As it turned out, when I discovered that “my birthday saint” was St. Francis Xavier, I was a little underwhelmed. Every time I said his name I thought of Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla, and I thought couldn’t I have had a better saint.

I bemoaned and ignored him, later discovering him as a follower of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who’s Spiritual Exercises and Daily Examen I was also looking into. Still, I was unsatisfied. I think I wanted someone like Joan of Arc or Mary Magdalene.

When I became interested in and devotional to St. Kateri Tekakwitha, a very local saint and the first Native American canonized saint, I wanted to visit her homes and her shrines. I’ve often been to Fonda, where she lived for most of her life, and tried to visit her tomb in Quebec. However, it was during covid, and they weren’t allowing non-parishioners or pilgrims to visit the shrine.

Where exactly is her shrine in Canada?

Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory at the, wait for it, St. Francis Xavier Mission Church.

Really. Her earthly bones, her relics are laid to rest in the church dedicated to “my birthday saint”. A truly remarkable and at the same time ordinary coincidence.

I’ve been to Kahnawake three times. The first was during that covid time when we could only explore the outside. And then this past summer, I was able to visit Kahnawake twice. The first time we visited, we knew the church would be closed on the only day we had available, but we did attend a tour of the village through the Kahnawake Tourism Center. We received a very detailed and informational tour about the area, the Mohawks past and present, St. Kateri, and a bit about the mission church. On our next visit at the end of August, we were able to not only visit and see the inside of the church, we were also able to attend mass, see the original and earliest painting of Kateri by Father Claude Chauchetiere (one of the Jesuit missionaries at the time) as well as her relic that was removed from the vault for us to observe and venerate (if we chose to).

This mission church is a permanent building and was erected in 1716. Before that it was a moveable mission that traveled with the Mohawks beginning in La-Prairie-de-la-Madeleine. They moved a total of five times each time their mission church was constructed the same as the other Mohawk buildings until this last time in its permanent location. St. Kateri’s remains were entombed here in 1972.

Inside the church, in addition to St. Kateri’s tomb, are two memorials: the first is to the Mohawk men lost in the Quebec Bridge disaster in 1907, and the second is an ironwork replica of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in honor of 9/11. Both are on the main altar. It should be noted that the Mohawk are known for their ironworking skills, and were large parts of crews building not only the World Trade Center, but the Empire State Building as well in addition to many other high-rise buildings and skyscrapers across the area.

[Photos below cut]

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Staycation Travels

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​As we wound down our staycation, I kept trying to make things interesting. We were all a little depressed that we weren’t able to go away this year, and really, after the wonderful time we had in Ireland last year with family, there really was no way to attempt to equal that, but I did want the kids to feel that they’d gotten a break before school returns next week.

I gave them each a journal, and began to dictate topics to start them off. They were not thrilled.

Then I hit up the I Love NY app, and found a perfect (on paper) idea to both give us a tourist opportunity, and remind us of our Irish adventure.

We discovered the Irish-American Heritage Museum. I had misread the website, so there really isn’t a large exhibit space. They typically have events, and in fact, later that week, they were hosting a Celtic cruise on the Hudson. They did have a display of Saratoga Race Track Travers’ Race posters by Greg Montgomery.


They also had a couple of small spaces of interest, both in current Irish-American life, history, and the diaspora. There was a table of Kennedy family photos, which I thought their prominence so clear that there was no label as to who they were. I did recognize one photo of the President and his mother.
Another section told the story of the Ancient Order of Hibernians Honor Guard, and still another was some religious items and artifacts, including a relic of St. Columba.

All along the walls depicted the history of the Irish-American beginnings especially in the Albany-Saratoga region with several track photos as well as Honorary Diplomas from the Educational Institute of Scotland for both Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan.

We spent a lovely hour looking around and asking questions.

Admission is by donation, and there was also a little gift shop.

After that, we stopped at a local Irish pub for lunch.


It really was a nice way to end our summer before going back to work and school, and offer homage to our once in a lifetime trip last year, which still calls to my heart.
Next week, I will surprise the kids with Irish candy as a before school treat. It’s been too hot to get it even the short distance to the Irish shop in town.

What adventures have you found this summer?