Catholic Canada: Canadian Martyrs’ Shrine

Editor’s note: Today, we welcome a guest post from my good friend and fellow “saint fan” Colleen Swaim. I saw this post on her blog and asked permission to share a bit of it with you. She shares a unique perspective on a treasured site! Lisa

Last summer, on our way back from New England, we made an all-too-quick stop in Auriesville, New York to visit the U.S. Shrine of St. Kateri Tekakwitha and the North American Martyrs at the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs.

I already knew that I would be heading with our toddler to spend some cottage time in Eastern Ontario (Matt was producing and hosting The Son Rise Morning Show back at home, but don’t worry, he had his own adventure, too) with my parents, so a plot was hatched to drive north of Toronto into Muskoka to the Canadian Martyrs Shrine in Midland, before heading on the rest of our 1,798 mile adventure.

On July 9th, my mom flew into Dayton, and then we got on the road in earnest and awash in road snacks by 4:30 AM on the 11th. Besides managing to leave my diaper bag in the Michigan Welcome Center (it was heroically rescued by friends who just happened to be passing right by it that very afternoon!), the drive up through Detroit and around Toronto was fine. We arrived in Midland and checked into our hotel that afternoon. Not really having a grip on the lay of the land there previous to booking the night’s stay, I went with the Super 8 close to downtown Midland, also serving the extremely well-mannered participants in a local motorcycle rally, which served our needs nicely, however, if I was to visit the Martyrs Shrine again, I’d probably try to book the Midland Inn and Suites, as it’s closer to the Shrine, or maybe even stay at the Shrine itself in its guest house. After getting our bearings at the hotel, we headed out to the Midland’s harbor area, located right on the beautiful Georgian Bay and got some dinner.

As dazzling as views on the Bay can be, it is clear, even during prime cottager season, that Midland is ripe for some revitalization. Downtown is also the scene of the nastiest public girl fight I’ve ever seen, but I digress.

The next morning, we headed out early to get as much time as possible at the Shrine before we had to head east.

We spent most of the morning exploring the various ethnic shrines erected by the many Catholic pilgrim groups (a large amount of whom visit from Toronto), as well as the altar area where John Paul II celebrated mass at the Shrine.

Afterwards, we visited the gift shop, where I got Matt a Martyrs comic book and spied a copy of Dr. Matthew Bunson’s book on St. Kateri.

It was around the corner from the gift shop where we found a real gem – the Shrine’s museum. Curated by Steve Catlin, we had the pleasure of not only experiencing the wonderfully arranged and archived museum pieces, but also got to check out his library and office, which were individual museums in and of themselves. He has a truly amazing and engaged wealth of knowledge on all things Canadian Martyrs (know as North American Martyrs in the U.S. and Martyrs of New France in Quebec) and St. Kateri, and we were able to examine a variety of historical texts, as well as the flesh remains of St. Jean de Brebeuf.

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Colleen resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is married to Matt Swaim, who hosts the Son Rise Morning Show, a production of Sacred Heart Radio which is syndicated on the EWTN Radio network, and they have a scarily verbal toddler son. Colleen teaches high school English at Covington Latin School in the Diocese of Covington and enjoys writing in her spare moments. Her books include Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints (Liguori 2011), Radiate: More Stories of Daring Teen Saints (Liguori 2012), andYour College Faith (Liguori 2013). She blogs over at MattandColleenSwaim.com