Each year, the walking Pilgrimage highlights themes of Ignatian spirituality. As a pilgrim, St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, experienced the beauty and mystery of God in all things, and understood that God dwells in all creatures, and labours for us within all of Creation. As we walk, we will be nurtured by “the presence of God in all things”.

A brief history – the footprints of divinity.

The walking Pilgrimage is also an opportunity to recall the faith of the Jesuit missionaries who gave of their lives to bring Christianity to the Huron Wendat Nation.

400 years ago the Jesuit missionaries, including Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, introduced Christianity to the Huron Wendat Nation. All eight members of the “Society of Jesus” were martyred for their faith between 1642 and 1649.

The Martyrs’ Shrine, dating from 1925, commemorates the faith of these eight Jesuits and the faith of the early Huron–Wendat Christians. The Shrine sits atop a hill across the highway from “Sainte–Marie among the Hurons”, the internationally significant Ontario historic site and a reconstructed village of the first European community in Ontario. The original village, founded in 1639, served as the headquarters of the French Jesuit mission. The remains of Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant are buried at Sainte–Marie.

The Martyrs’ Shrine has become a celebrated place of pilgrimage and prayer. Each year, thousands of pilgrims of many nationalities visit the Shrine. It has become a sacred place of healing, faith and hope for countless people.