Repairs to start at shrine damaged by March storm
Auriesville-area Amish being tapped for their 19th-century building experience
AURIESVILLE — The Roman Catholic Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine will work with the nearby Amish community to repair the Chapel of Martyrs, heavily damaged by a March windstorm that swept across the shrine’s hilltop location overlooking the Mohawk River, a shrine representative said.
The damage to the historic red-andwhite chapel, which was built in 1894, and other locations is estimated to be about $300,000. The west side of the building is crushed where a tree hit it, leaving the building surrounded by yellow warning tape and marked with danger signs.
An examination of the chapel shows a section of the roof caved in. Pieces of the red roofing on the ground are mixed in with the splintered sections of the wall. Debris is scattered across the ground.
“We knew it was a big windstorm. When we got the photos, it was not a good feeling,” said Bill Baaki, a member of the Friends of Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine Inc.
The chapel, which bears the name Chapels, Our Lady of Martyrs, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, is the second oldest building on the 150-acre shrine location. It took the place of the original gazebo chapel that was erected on the brow of the hill in 1885 then relocated to make room for the 1894 chapel. The main worship area, known as the Coliseum of Our Lady of Martyrs, was built in 1930.
An insurance assessment put the repair bill at $300,000. The shrine staff believes that working with the Amish from Fultonville will result in lower costs for the repair work and providing the workmanship needed to expertly repair the late-19th-century building, Baaki said.
The arrival of the Amish in Montgomery County’s Mohawk Valley and their settling into the community is told in “New York Amish: Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State” by Karen M. Johnson-weiner, a Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology Emerita at the state College at Potsdam.
The shrine staff has maintained relationships with the Amish in the Fultonville-glen area, Baaki said. It was from this that they opened discussions to have Amish workers come to the shrine to perform the necessary restoration and repairs of the historic chapel.
The goal for the damaged chapel is “fixing it before the season begins,” Baaki said.
The pilgrimage season at the shrine opens May 1 and runs through October. The windstorm occurred during the time when the shrine is considered closed.
The shrine is a pilgrimage site in Montgomery County for Roman Catholics that was established in 1885. It is said to be where Jesuit missionaries St. Rene Goupil, St. Issace Jogues and St. Jean de Lalande were martyred in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon. Goupil died in 1642 and Jogues and Lalande in 1646. It is also identified as the birthplace of Saint Kateria Tekakwitha. Modern archaeologists have said the Mohawk village was located nine miles to the west on the south side of the Mohawk River.
It was fortunate that no one was hurt during the March 11 windstorm, Baaki said. The storm also damaged a statue on the grounds and took down some other trees.
The Amish have experience in carpentry that will be useful for working on the chapel restoration, Baaki said. He noted that the chapel has withstood storms for nearly 130 years without needing repairs. He praised the quality of the 19th-century workmanship and woodworking that went into constructing the chapel in 1894.
“We’re quite fortunate to have that type of craftsmanship,” Baaki said, concerning the woodworking skills possessed by their Amish neighbors.
The wintry storms that crossed the Capital Region this past week delayed the start of repairs. It’s anticipated work will begin Monday.