COMING HOME!

MELISSA MISCEVIC BRAMBLE, Director of Operations for the St. Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine, and Bill Jacobs, the founder, COO, and Senior Ecology Strategist for the Saint Kateri Conservation Center, welcome a first-class relic (a four-inch piece of arm bone) of the first Native American saint back to her native land in Auriesville. (Photo provided) (Courtesy photo of Fatima LaBrie)

After over a decade of discussions, a piece of St. Kateri Tekakwitha is coming home. 

The St. Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine in Auriesville is welcoming a first-class relic of the first Native American saint that was recovered from a private sale by the Saint Kateri Conservation Center, which is a Catholic conservancy and land trust promoting faith, integral ecology, biodiversity and ­climate resilience. 

The relic will be on display for public veneration on Saturday, July 18, and Sunday, July 19, at the shrine. Melissa Miscevic Bramble, director of operations for the shrine, said this will be the first time the relic will be available for public veneration in at least a decade.

“The relic that is being discussed here, it’s actually a four-inch piece of arm bone,” Bramble told The Evangelist. “And it comes with a couple of pieces of documentation,” one of which is “a letter of canonical recognition from Bishop (Édouard-Charles) Fabre, who (was) the Archbishop of Montreal, (and he) signed this letter that’s from 1893 that describes the relic and the reliquary.”

The relic’s arrival couldn’t have come at a better time, as the shrine just celebrated the saint’s feast day on July 14 and is celebrating the 350th anniversary of St. Kateri’s baptism this year. 

“We’re excited about this,” Bramble said.

Bill Jacobs, the conservation center’s founder, and Shauna’h Fuegen, the center’s chairperson, who is Mohawk and a devout Catholic, are both scheduled to come to present the relic. The rest of the weekend schedule is as follows:

Saturday, July 18

1 p.m. — Sweetgrass teachings with Judi Cole of Akwesasne

3 p.m. — Mohawk and English rosary and prayers with the Akwesasne Altar & Rosary Society

4:30 p.m. — Thanksgiving address, relic veneration and Mass

7:30 p.m. — Prayer and healing service

Sunday, July 19

10:30 a.m. — Thanksgiving address, relic veneration and Mass

12 p.m. — Burning of prayer petitions

1:30 p.m. — Plant-identification walk

The backstory of the relic began in 2016, when Jacobs heard that a relic had been discovered inside a filing cabinet bought at an auction. 

Jacobs started a GoFundMe campaign with the successful #BringKateriHome tag, which garnered attention to help the center purchase the reliquary. While the purchase of relics is prohibited, Church law allows the purchase of a reliquary to “rescue” the relic inside. 

Bramble had been in talks with the center for around four years about bringing the relic to the St. Kateri Shrine.

“Just talking with folks at the conservation center, building relationships with them, and to see if they would be willing to entrust us with the stewardship of this relic and make it available for public veneration,” Bramble said. “And there were a series of meetings where it was the founder of a conservation center, my minister provincial and we consulted with members of the native Catholic community, including Sister Kateri Mitchell, who was involved in the 2006 miracle that led to Saint Kateri’s canonization. She is a Sister of St. Anne, a professed religious nun and a member of the Mohawk nation.”

Bramble said the group “had a lot of conversations around what native folks would like to see, what native Catholics would like to see” and ultimately heard that what mattered most was St. Kateri returning to her people.

“The consensus was that they really wanted her relic to come home,” she said. “They wanted her brought home and to be with the people who love her.”