Catholics are fond of Fonda shrine dedicated to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

On a weekday, the National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha is quiet, with only an occasional carload of visitors pulling in from rural Route 5 in Fonda. There are no signs of the "old faithful" shrine devotees: the woman who calls weekly to cite miracles she has heard attributed to Kateri, or the Native American who fixed the shrine's bell tower, saving its directors $9,000.

On the grounds

Those buildings hide a large, low-ceilinged gift shop, a small retreat center and the open St. Maximilian Kolbe pavilion, where outdoor Masses are held. Staggered across the green hill beyond are Stations of the Cross on wooden poles.

"It's very rustic," explains Brother Kenneth Lucas, OFM Conv., associate director of the shrine. "I like that."

Place for pilgrims

This is the site where, in the 1670s, Tekakwitha lived, was converted to Christianity and baptized, and suffered persecution at the hands of her own people before fleeing to Canada.

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, born across the Mohawk River to a Mohawk chief and an Algonquin mother, was the only member of her family to survive a smallpox epidemic when she was four years old. The disease left her with a pockmarked face and poor eyesight.

After a war party destroyed their village, the Mohawks built a new home called Caughnawaga on the site of the shrine, and Kateri lived there for 10 years. When she died in Canada at 25, already revered for her holiness, the scars on her face are said to have miraculously disappeared.

Rediscovery

BY traveling up a steep dirt road through the woods behind the shrine, today's visitors eventually come upon an open field where stakes outline where Mohawk longhouses once stood.

Recently, the Kateri shrine celebrated a proud moment: Indian remains previously on display in its museum exhibit were reinterred at the village site. A Mohawk chief officiated at the private Native American ceremony, which was followed by a traditional meal called "the feast of the dead," celebrating the entry of the dead into the spirit world. A bare cedar post now marks the site.

Down a narrow path from the village, an ancient spring still seeps up through the ground. A whimsical statue of Blessed Kateri stands in a small grotto there -- humorous, because sparrows have built a nest on the future saint's head, giving her the appearance of sporting a Russian fur hat.

Major sites

Statues of Blessed Kateri and St. Maximilian Kolbe share space with Native American artifacts: animal hides, "dreamcatchers," and clan symbols like the turtle, beaver and wolf.

Local Native Americans often come on feast days to help with Masses, said Rev. Kevin Kenny, OFM Conv., director of the shrine. Traveling from as far away as Syracuse to participate in the liturgies, they sing Mohawk-language songs and burn a combination of tobacco, sage, cedar and sweetgrass as incense.

Exhibition

Beyond the drawing begin a series of lighted displays that follow a twisting path through both the museum and the history of Native American cultures. Beginning with arrowheads, stone tools and clay pots, the displays gradually give way to ironwork and fur hides -- the latter, what the directors call "big money" items at the trading posts of the past. One display of snowshoes points out that these were invented by Native Americans.

Many of the items are not from the Mohawks or other eastern nations, but those of the west. Native Americans who made their homes in the woods often left few artifacts, Father Kenny explains. But a series of exhibits highlights the work of local Native Americans, and photos detail the excavation of Caughnawaga, where some of the work was done by seminarians from St. Anthony-on-Hudson in Rensselaer.

Relics

Pipes, beads, basketry, clothing from plains Indians, and even an alcove of Costa Rican and Mayan artifacts round out the tour. To visitors, Brother Kenneth points out colonial land deeds in a glass case and photos of Mrs. Bob Hope, the shrine's most famous visitor to date.

One exhibit is incongruously filled with information on the Franciscans. Brother Kenneth notes that while this is just until a "Kateri wampum belt" is placed in the case, the temporary commercial can't hurt: He has given out information on the friars to a couple of pilgrims to the shrine.

Gift shop

The dark-brown building's "theme is Kateri," says Brother Kenneth. "We try to stick with Native American things. Mary was very important to Kateri, so we have a lot of rosaries."

Among the items for sale are statues of Tekakwitha, always pictured with the cross that was so important to her; olive-wood crosses and other articles from the Holy Land; and t-shirts with Native American themes emblazoned with the shrine's name.

A "chaplet of Kateri," a one-decade Rosary, contains white beads to symbolize crystal-clear water, red for the blood of humankind and brown for the earth.

On one table sit dozens of jars of Trappist-made jam. Brother Kenneth shrugs off this Trappist incursion into Franciscan territory with "they make good jellies."

Place of prayer

Miracles attributed to the saint, Father Kenny says, include the case of a boy who injured his eye, losing all its vitreous humor, but allegedly regained his sight through prayers to Tekakwitha; and a soldier in Vietnam who claimed during a visit to the shrine that through a vision, Blessed Kateri had led him out of the jungle to safety.

While they wait for the Native American's cause for canonization to be furthered, Brother Kenneth and Father Kenny lead tour groups and individuals, celebrate extra liturgies on request and host the occasional Confirmation retreat for local parishes.

"We include a lot of Indian rituals with the kids, which they're always interested in," Father Kenny says. "We acknowledge the presence of God in all the universe."

(The National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha is open daily May 1-Nov. 1. The retreat house is open year-round. Call 853-3646.)

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