OUR LADY'S SHRINE AT AURIESVILLE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 5, 31 October 1890, Page 11

OUR LADY'S SHRINE AT AURIESVILLE.

(New York Freeman's Journal.')

To the practical Catholic it is most encouraging and conso'ing to ccc. amid all the attractions displayed by pleasure to her votaries in the busy world, tha temples of religion ani tha holy places of pious meditation, sought out by devout worshippers following, like Cardinal Newman, that " Kindly Light " which leads to ttw true fulfilment of mma etern .1 destiny. A very few years ago infidelity and skepticism were boasting of the mroais they were miking up^n the dominion of Gnnstian faith in tiis country, aid soffin^ at religion was an enterprise woich attracted el >qu3at sophis.s to the lecture platform, promising imm :di-ue financial iemunera'ion if not a lasting fame. He must be a prejuiic^d obierver, however, who does not now admit ttut the paople hive growa weary of the sophistry and are showing more devotion than ev^r to Christian principles aad to saving faith. Tne public cmsci j ncj has been more potent than repressive liws in silencing th j scoff in at religio.l and restraining the sacrilegious invaders of the sacrei temple. Amongst the pious exercises which give cvi lence of <t living and abiding force there are none more touching and full of loul th in the solemn visit of meditative pilgrims to some of the holy shrines or scenes of martyrdom and miracles — the special and sacred inheritance of Catholics — where the sacred surroundings lend wings to the soul, enabling it to rise above the distracfioas of the world to the Throne of Meicyand uommune direct with God. In the celebrated Mohawk Valley, in this State, about thirty miles from Albany, stands one of those sbrines sacred to Cathoiic believers, to wmch pi grimaces are yearly made, and this year 10 a greater extent than ever before It is located at Auriesville. a little hamlet on an elevated tableland, overlooking the Mohawk Valley and the country for twenty miles around. On this spot was established the first (Jatho ie mission among the Iroquo's Indians, two and a half centuries ago, by fourteen Jesuit Fathers, and here also is the scene of the martyrdom ot Rjv. Father Isaac Jogues, S.J., who was slain by the Indians on October 18th, 1646. On the grounds have been erected an altar and the Stations of the Cross ; and but a few days ago a company of pilgrims numbering about 'J,OOO, chiefly from St. Joseph'^ parish in Troy, assembled here to offer up their prayers to Our Lady of Martyrs. Several other pilgrimages have been made to the sacred spot this summer. A memorial cross hns been erected neir the shrines and several inscriptions thereDn suggest ihe pious significance of the surroundings. On the cross arm are the following inscriptions denoting tbe three miSHions which had been established there by the •/. alous missionaries : "To the Most Holy Trinity, 164G," "St. Mary's 1667," "St. Peter's, 1673." On the base of the cross are inscribed the following on the different sides : " On this Indian Village site the Mission of tha Martyrs was founded in his blood by Father Isaac Jogues, S.J., slain Oct., 16th. 1646. In this the first and chief Iroquois Mission, 14 pries s, S.J., suffered and toiled till its destruction in 1684. Erected for the two hundredth anniversary." " Near this spot Uene Goupil, Novice, S. J., was slain for the sign of the crosa Sept, 26th, 1642, and, before and after, in different years,

many other Christians, men and women, companions and disciples of the French and various Indian races, offered up tbeir livet." " In memory of the nitive converts of the Mission, Hurons, Alironquins, «n 1 Iroquois, whose virtues like those of the Primitive Christi.'is, shone in captivity and persecution, especially of the Lily of the Mohawk, Catharine, Tegakwita, the Iroquois virgin, born here in 1656. baptised ia the Mission Church, -Easter Sun lay, 1676, died in Canada, 1680." Nature, as though desirous of attracting to the sacred retreat of pious meditation, ttie votaries of pleasure as the devotees of religion, has surrounded the scene with her choicest c larma of scenery. It is convenient of access and several railw-iy lines as well a 9 the beautiful Hudson are continually whispering as they pursue their endless journeys, their invitation to pious Christians to repair to tin holy ground where zealous soldiers for the truth had won the crown of martyrdom, and with the spiritual eye of faith behold new beauties, of which, perhaps, they had never dreamed, in the divine mysterlei of the Communion of Saintß, the foregiveness of sins, and life everlasting.