inSPIREd Sunday

July 2016 - Midland ON


I posted another church here the Martyrs' Shrine and wrote about visiting Sainte Marie Among the Hurons here.


I didn't include one of the two churches on the grounds in either of those posts.

There are 31 wooden buildings here, divided into two main sections: the Jesuit area with its watchtowers, chapel, forge, living quarters, well-stocked garden and farm buildings, full of pigs, cows and hens; and the Aboriginal area, including a hospital and a pair of bark-covered long houses – one for Christian converts, the other for “heathens”. Costumed guides act out the parts of Hurons and Europeans with great gusto, answering questions and demonstrating crafts and skills, though they show a certain reluctance to eat what was once the staple food of the region, sagamite, a porridge of cornmeal seasoned with rotten fish.

The Church of St. Joseph











It was crowded and noisy with a day care camp.











The grave in the simple wooden church of St Joseph between the Christian and Aboriginal areas is the place where the (remaining) flesh of Brébeuf and Lalemant was interred after the Jesuits had removed many of the bones for future use as reliquaries.









When I returned it was empty and allowed me to wander around.