On October 17, 2018, from 6-9:00 p.m., our Saint Kateri National Shrine and Historic Site (Fonda, NY) will hold an 80th Anniversary Celebration at the River Stone Manor (Glenville, NY). The Most Reverend Edward B. Scharfenberger, Bishop of Albany will be the honoree of the event and the proceeds will benefit the Shrine. Those in attendance will enjoy hors d’oeuvres, desserts and a cash bar. The evening will also include a Silent Auction. Purchase Tickets
One of two shrine and historic site ministries of our friars, this site is dedicated to St. Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th-century Mohawk woman born in present-day Auriesville and sits on the land where St. Kateri lived for a decade. In 1938, Fr. Thomas Grassman, OFM Conv., a Franciscan Friar Conventual, a historian and an archaeologist founded the Fonda Memorial of Catherine Tekakwitha near Fonda, New York, in the vicinity of the Mohawk settlement Caughnawaga, where Catholic convert Kateri Tekakwitha lived from 1656-1680, and been baptized at Catherine. In 1950, Friar Thomas led a six year dig discovering a fortified, gated wooden double stockade (the castle) and 12 elm bark covered long houses inhabited by the Turtle Clan of the Mohawk from 1666-1693. The Caughnawaga Castle Site was declared a National Historical Place in 1973. In 1980, (Saint) Pope John Paul II declared Kateri as “Blessed” and the site became an official Shrine. Canonized in 2012, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the “Lily of the Mohawks” is considered a patron saint of peace and ecology.
Under the current Direction of Rita Gullion, with Spiritual Direction of Shrine Chaplain, Fr. Timothy Lyons, OFM Conv., the main building, an 18th century barn, houses the St. Peter’s Chapel on the second floor with a Native American Museum below. The Shrine grounds offer multiple walking trails, visits to the site of the village and the baptismal place of St. Kateri, as well as a gift shop.
