By Nicholas Elbers / The B.C. Catholic
Vancouver, Canada, Dec 29, 2024 / 06:00 am
If the faithful can’t go to the shrine, bring the shrine to the faithful.
So it will be with the relics of the Canadian Martyrs, usually housed in their Midland, Ontario, shrine, which will make their first tour of western Canada as part of the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.
The Shrine of the Canadian Martyrs has been designated as an official pilgrimage site for the Jubilee Year of Hope. However, because of Canada’s size, it was recognized that not everyone could reasonably make the trip so the tour was planned, with stops across the Prairies and west of the Rockies.
The major relics of the Canadian Martyrs on tour will include the skull of St. Jean de Brebeuf and bones of St. Charles Garnier and St. Gabriel Lalemant. The three men were among the eight French missionaries who first brought the Gospel to Canada and were martyred during the Huron-Iroquois Wars of the early 1600s.
Joining them will be a relic of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Indigenous North American saint and the patron of First Nations peoples.
