Catherine Tekawitha and the nun museum

Isn't it exciting that I brought my computer with all the old family
photos so you can have visual references with each story?

Driving in Northern Michigan, I came across the most fabulous roadside attraction.  It is the Cross in the Woods. It was inspired by Catherine Tekawitha, the Mohawk Saint (or Beatified and up for sainthood anyway). When I was about 12 years old, my parents took us on a trip to Canada and through upstate New York.  Along the way we went to the reservation that was her home.  I don't remember why, but a lot of people had left notes praying for her help to find lost items.  My parents loved this and immediately began calling on Chaterine Tekawitha whenever we misplaced something. "Oh, Catherine Tekawitha -- please help me find my car keys." "Oh, Catherine Tekawitha... where is that damn checkbook?" These declarations always began the same way, "Oh, Catherine Tekawitha," and were heard throughout my childhood. So of course I was going to go visit the Cross in the Woods that she inspired.

Well, the Cross was just a big, 50 foot tall cross in the woods, exactly as advertised, but nothing too special. I did get the exciting treat of a Catherine Tekawitha statue.  Unexpectedly, the best part of my stop was the accompanying museum dedicated to nuns.  Some (let's call her crazy) lady decided to make up dolls representing each order of nuns in North America, dressed in their original habit. Seriously. This was the strangest thing that I have ever seen. (Although, I'm not sure I ever wrote about the miniatures room at the Chicago Art Institute.  This time a rich, crazy lady decided to duplicate famous rooms from around the world.  Everything was made exactly to scale and from the original material used in construction. For example, the mini-cathedral was actually carved from limestone.  Nuts, but totally worth seeing.) The nun museum is significantly less professional.  These were dolls in costume.  It was hilarious.  This is the kind of thing that I love, and totally the reason for this trip.

I was super excited to find the RSHM doll.  The RSHM (or the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary) is the order of nuns that founded the Marymount Schools where I worked. I have even traveled to their 'Mother House' in Beziers, France with a group of MMT alumnae.  Fortunately the original habit for the RSHM order is very distinctive, with an almost cone-like point at the top of the forehead.  It took a while, but there it was! Awesome.