The shrine is the site of the 17th Century Mohawk village of Ossernenon where three Jesuit missionaries were killed during the 1640s for their faith. Father Isaac Jogues and two lay Jesuits, René Goupil and John Lalande, traveled from France to the New World to evangelize the indigenous peoples. They, along with five Jesuit priests martyred in Canada, were canonized as the eight North American Martyrs in 1930.