Martyrs Shrine Relics tour Northern Ontario
By Leslie Knibbs
ESPANOLA – Crowds of people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, filled the small chapel at the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre for a visitation of the relics of St. Jean de Brébeuf and St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Indigenous Saint of North America, on January 15 in Espanola, Ont., as part of the Martyrs’ Shrine Relics Tour.
The Northern Ontario leg of the relic tour, beginning at the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre, travelled north through multiple dioceses, including stops in Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, Kapuskasing, Moosonee, Aroland, Long Lac, North Bay and Sudbury, before returning to the Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland. Edwina MacDonald, the Executive Director of the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre, along with her husband Mark, and Father John O’Brien, Director of the Martyrs’ Shrine, shepherded the tour, providing historical and spiritual context at each venue, including a Mass at each locale.
The stated purpose of the tour, according to Jesuits Canada, was “to bring the relics to parts of Canada whose people can’t easily get to visit the Martyrs’ Shrine, so that Canadians can have an encounter with these great saints, and receive the graces of healing and reconciliation for themselves, their families, and our country.”
The Anishinabe Spiritual Centre, surrounded by the wilderness of Northeastern Ontario in the Manitoulin Island/North Shore Region, was formerly run by the Jesuits of Canada; however, it is now governed by the Anishinabe, who have made their home in the Northeast Woodlands and Subarctic for thousands of years. In late 2025, after decades of participation of Indigenous leadership in ministry and formation, the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre reached a momentous milestone with the formal evolution from Jesuit governance to an entirely Indigenous-led Board of Directors and Members. This shift reinforces the (Jesuits’) Centre’s founding vision to empower Indigenous peoples to lead their own Church. According to Jesuits Canada, the first church in Canada was formed with the first diocese being the Huron people of Northeastern Ontario in the early 1600s.
Beginning in 2024 and ending in January 2026, the Jesuits of Canada and the Martyrs’ Shrine held a national pilgrimage touring with the sacred relics of Canadian Martyrs, including the skull of St. Jean de Brébeuf and bone fragments of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, visiting various locations. This year, the devotional tour ran from January 15 to January 26, starting at the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre.
St. Jean de Brébeuf and St. Kateri Tekakwitha gave their lives for their faith. The relics of these two Saints have been preserved for four centuries at the Midland Shrine.
“This relic pilgrimage is about encounter,” according to MacDonald, Executive Director of the Anishinabe Spiritual Centre. “It brings the stories of the saints to communities that are often distant from major pilgrimage sites and invites reflection on faith, history, healing, and reconciliation—especially here in Northern Ontario.”
“Relics remind us that faith is not abstract, it is lived and embodied in real places and real people,” added Father O’Brien, from the Martyrs’ Shrine. “Bringing the relics of St. Kateri Tekakwitha and St. Jean de Brébeuf to Northern Ontario is an invitation to prayer, to honest reflection on our shared history, and to hope for healing and reconciliation.”
The Northeastern Ontario tour was the culmination of a two-year journey a pilgrimage that started in January 2024 with a tour of the United States, then returning to the Martyrs’ Shrine for the summer of 2025 before touring Eastern Canada, then concluding with the Northern Ontario leg of the journey before returning home to the Martyrs’ Shrine.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha passed after a long illness, generally acknowledged as tuberculosis, on April 17, 1680, at 24 years of age, at the St. Francis Xavier Mission in Kahnawake. According to historical documents, her last words were “Jesus Kanorimkwa” (Jesus, I love you).
Jesuit saints were part of a group of eight French missionaries who first brought the Gospel to Canada, and were martyred during the Huron-Iroquois Wars of the early 1600s. St. Kateri Tekakwitha was the first Indigenous North American saint; she was canonized in 2012 and is a beloved patron of the First Nations peoples.