All through the air there is the peculiar fragrance of the country as it begins to be northern--the spice from the evergreen trees when the sun burns into them. The Shrine is on a hill which slopes gently up from the little Wye River below.

Close by the river lie the ruins of Ste. Marie built by the Jesuit missionaries in 1639 as a centre for their work among the Huron Natives.

Today the Shrine on the hill is a simple place; in no way pretentious. But there is something on that hill that no eye can see. It rests there -- something that draws the lonely heart and gives it peace, and courage to return again to the field of the world to work.

Turn the pages of our Canadian history. Almost four hundred years ago the Jesuit missionaries came to the country of the Huron Natives with a great, passionate dream in their souls, and great, strong courage to devote to that dream. The missionaries believed that if they had an opportunity to teach a simple people from the beginning, they could build a
Christian State where the people could live in equality and peace. Huronia was to be such a Christian State in North America.

The Fathers believed that if they had time enough, and could successfully protect the Natives from the greed of the white man, it would be possible. And so it likely would have been but for the muskets and the lure of the furs of the Natives.

For 10 years Ste. Marie was the centre of the Jesuit mission to the Huron. There the Fathers taught the Natives how to treat the land so it would nourish them; how to live so they could be healthy; how to live according to a law which would bring the greatest good to the greatest number; and in addition how to sustain the inner life of the spirit so it might be strong enough to take the individual through life's experiences.

To this end the Fathers learned the Huron tongue and lived among the Natives year in and year out, impressing upon them the sweetness of the Christian faith through their own example of kindness, unselfishness and knowledge - not to mention their purity of lives and conduct. It remains in our history one of the noblest of all humanitarian efforts and one of the highest of all Christian actions.

In 1649 the Iroquois came raiding into the north. One by one, the Huron villages fell before the Iroquois and five of the missionaries fell in Martyrdom. All through Huronia the smoke rose from the burning and destruction. To the end, the Martyrs bore themselves with that strange, benign dignity of holy office -- looking with eyes full of compassion upon those who thought that the death of a man was the end of faith.

Today as one walks the grounds of the Martyrs' Shrine one can still sense it all. One thinks of the story of Christianity -- that simple, pure story which has stayed with us these many centuries and which nothing can take from us, neither the failings of Christians, nor their doubts, and not even the cruelty to each other.

This place was at the beginning a mission field, and men came to it who believed so deeply in God they were willing to love and to serve in an unbelievably difficult mission. They were a Society formed for the following of Jesus; and they loved so much they were willing and glad to offer their lives in order that it be known their Lord lived in his followers forever.

(This text was adapted from a text of a Toronto Journalist in 1939)