April 24, 2024 at 11:25 a.m.
HELPING HANDS
A historic chapel on the grounds of Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine in Auriesville will be rebuilt — with a little help from some nearby friends — after it was damaged by a fierce windstorm in March.
The Martyrs Chapel, which was constructed in 1894 with its distinctive red roof and white walls, had never been affected by the weather until the March 11 storm when the structure was crushed by high winds and falling trees.
“As far as we know it’s never had any significant damage or change to it needed. The Martyrs Chapel was built in 1894, it started with the roof and the open air structure and someone added walls at some point,” said Bill Baaki, board member and chair of the development committee, Friends of Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine, Inc., the not-for-profit organization that owns and operates the shrine. “The Kateri Chapel is the enclosed structure that is added on the back of it so certainly there has been renovations and improvements to it, but … it is up on the hill with high winds and old trees and we are not aware of anything like this ever happening before.”
Baaki said the quote that he received from the contractor to fix the structure was over $300,000, with the insurance estimate at far less than that figure “leaving us in quite the quandary.”
But then enter the local nearby Amish community, with its connection to the shrine and the know-how to repair the 19th-century chapel, which is primarily used by smaller pilgrimages or when the Coliseum is occupied. Baaki said the caretaker of the shrine, who lives on the 159-acre property, has used the Amish community to help maintain the sprawling space.
“In the past, one of the challenges when we were taking over the operation of the shrine, was there is a lot of grass to mow and we have a very small staff and operating budget,” he said. “At various points (the Amish) have done the wonderful service and exchange of haying some of the hills, so it has been great for them that they have been able to use the hay and also nice for us that it keeps the grass and weeds down in areas that would be cost-prohibitive to try to mow.”
The caretaker “had the point of contact and happened to mention the problem that we were facing (with repairing the chapel) and they got the dialogue going and they took a look and said they could certainly do it and we are really blessed for that,” Baaki added.
“The Amish have the craftsmanship at the same level that it was built. When they built this, people put a lot of love and care into everything that they did, especially a chapel. And even though it is not an ornate structure, it is a simple, basic structure, it was built with a lot of love and care. We have them as the neighbors right up the road and they can apply the same love and care and do the repairs at a cost that is manageable.”
What that cost is eventually going to be is still to be determined.
“We still have to secure the materials and we are optimistic now that it is all going to be covered under what the insurance had adjusted it for,” Baaki said. “The shrine does exist solely on the kindness and generosity of the pilgrims and we’re not a parish, we don’t have a base of support that is existing.
“We certainly are going to need some help from the donors and pilgrims this year because whenever something like this happens there is always something that you don’t expect. But we are confident and thankful that it appears that we have a solution that we can get it going.”
The work, which has been hampered by the bad, wet weather this month, is expected to be ongoing through the early part of the shrine season, which runs from May 1 through October.
When it is finished, Baaki and all the many pilgrims that will make their way there this year will know it could not have happened without a little help from the shrine’s friends.
“When we briefed (Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger) on this he was very pleased at the ecumenical relations of having the Amish community working together and doing this … he just thought it was a wonderful, wonderful thing,” Baaki said.
For more information on the shrine or to donate, head to www.ourladyofmartyrsshrine.org.
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