Auriesville, New York
Encyclopedia
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
in the northeastern part of the town of Glen
Glen, New York
Glen is a town in Montgomery County, New York, United States. The population was 2,507 at the 2010 census. The town was named after Jacob S.Glen, an early landowner....
in Montgomery County
Montgomery County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 49,708 people, 20,038 households, and 13,104 families residing in the county. The population density was 123 people per square mile . There were 22,522 housing units at an average density of 56 per square mile...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, along the south bank of the Mohawk River
Mohawk River
The Mohawk River is a river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk flows into the Hudson in the Capital District, a few miles north of the city of Albany. The river is named for the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy...
. It lies about forty miles west of Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, the state capital. A Jesuit cemetery is located there.
Auries was the name of the last Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
known to have lived there. Settlers named the village after him. The Mohawk called the place Ossernenon, also Gandawaga and Caughnawaga.
The latter name was also given to a northern settlement on the St. Lawrence River opposite Lachine
Lachine
Lachine may refer to a number of places in the Montreal area:* Lachine, Quebec, the community* Lachine Rapids* Lachine Canal* The Fur Trade at Lachine National Historic Site...
(later Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
). Also known as Kahnawake, the Canadian settlement was founded by 1718 as a Jesuit mission for the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
converts to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
who wanted to withdraw from 'moral corruption' by their pagan kinsmen.
History
Auriesville is the presumed site of the MohawkMohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
village, located in Montgomery County, New York
Montgomery County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 49,708 people, 20,038 households, and 13,104 families residing in the county. The population density was 123 people per square mile . There were 22,522 housing units at an average density of 56 per square mile...
, U.S.A., in which Saint Isaac Jogues, and his companions, Saint René Goupil and Saint Jean de Lalande
Jean de Lalande
Saint Jean de Lalande was a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons and one of the eight North American Martyrs....
, were martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
ed by the Mohawk
Mohawk nation
Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...
.
Jogues and Goupil were brought from present-day Canada to the village on the Mohawk River in 1642 as prisoners. They were tortured and then enslaved by the Mohawk. Goupil was killed in 1642, but Jogues escaped and returned to France. He returned to the village on a peace mission with Lalande, a young lay brother. Jogues was killed October 18, 1646. Lalande was killed the next day while trying to recover his body from the village path. In 1644 François-Joseph Bressani
François-Joseph Bressani
François-Joseph Bressani, , , was an Italian born Jesuit priest who asked to be sent as a missionary to New France....
was tortured there, and later on, Joseph Poncet
Joseph Poncet
Joseph Anthony de la Rivière Poncet was a French Jesuit missionary to Canada.-Life:He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Paris at nineteen, as a student in rhetoric and philosophy...
. They were later martyred in Canada.
In 1655-57 Le Moyne came as ambassador to make peace. In 1666 the Marquis de Tracy conducted a punitive expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
against Ossernenon and other Mohawk villages. The next year in 1667, a permanent Jesuit mission was established. There Father Boniface, James de Lamberville, Jacques Frémin
Jacques Frémin
Jacques Frémin was a French Jesuit missionary to Canada.-Life:He entered the Society of Jesus in 1646 and in 1655 set out for the Onondaga mission in Canada...
, Bruyas, Jean Pierron
Jean Pierron
Jean Pierron was a French Jesuit missionary to Canada.-Life:...
and others laboured until 1684, when the mission was destroyed.
Kateri Tekakwitha
Kateri Tekakwitha
Kateri Tekakwitha or Catherine Tekakwitha was a Mohawk-Algonquian woman from New York and an early convert to Catholicism, who has been beatified in the Roman Catholic Church.-Her life:...
, a Mohawk Indian woman who has been beatified in the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, was born there and baptized in nearby Fonda, New York
Fonda, New York
Fonda is a village in Montgomery County, New York, United States. The population was 810 at the 2000 census. Fonda is the county seat of Montgomery County...
. While the missionaries were in control of Ossernenon and the adjacent Indian towns, Blessed Kateri and other Mohawk converts, particularly the women, were remarkable for their exact Christian life, and in many instances for their exalted piety.
The exact location of this village, closely associated with the founding of Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
in New York, was for a time a subject of considerable dispute. Historians such as John Gilmary Shea and Gen. J. S. Clarke of Auburn
Auburn, New York
Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States of America. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 27,687...
had disagreed. They finally were able to show that the present Auriesville is the place in which Father Jogues and his companions suffered death. The basic evidence is the fact that, up to the time that the villages were destroyed by de Tracy, they were on the south side of the Mohawk and west of the Schoharie River. This was clear from contemporary maps, and from the letters of Jogues, Bressani, and Poncet.
Joliet, known to be an accurate cartographer, put the village of Ossernenon at the confluence
Confluence
Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
of the Schoharie and Mohawk. Jogues had written that the village was on the top of a hill, a quarter of a league from the river. Jogues described the ravine in which Goupil's body was found, with features that were extant in the 19th century. Lastly, Jogues gave the distances from the villages of Andagaron and Tionontoguen, which fixed the locality.
Commemoration
In 1884, the Rev. Joseph Loyzance, S.J., then parish priest of St. Joseph's, Troy, New YorkTroy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
, purchased 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) of land on the hill. A student of the lives of the early missionaries, Father Loyzance erected a small shrine under the title of Our Lady of Martyrs. He was the first to lead a number of pilgrims to the place, on 15 August of that year. It was the
Feast of the Assumption, as well as the anniversary of the first arrival of Father Isaac Jogues as an Iroquois captive. Four thousand people went from Albany and Troy on that day.
Other parishes subsequently adopted the practice of visiting Auriesville during the summer. Frequently there were as many as 4,000 to 5,000 people present. Many of the pilgrims would come fasting
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...
, would pray and receive Holy Communion there. More ground was purchased and consecrated to keep the surroundings free from undesirable development. Following the canonization of St. Isaac Jogues in 1930, the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs
National Shrine of the North American Martyrs
The National Shrine of the North American Martyrs, also dedicated as the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs, is a Roman Catholic shrine in Auriesville, New York dedicated to the Jesuit missionaries who were martyred at the Mohawk Indian village of Ossernenon between 1642 and 1646. St. Rene Goupil, a...
was built there. A large coliseum-sanctuary was built on the grounds, capable of seating 6000 worshipers. The property now includes more than 400 acres (1.6 km²).