Kateri Tekakwitha lived from 1666 to 1677 in the Mohawk Indian village called Caughnawaga, on a 178-acre tract of virgin woodland. She was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1676, at St. Peters Chapel in or near the village, where the Jesuit Fathers served the mission. The village was discovered and excavated by Fr. Thomas Grassmann OFM Conv. in 1950-57. Near the site stands St. Peters Chapel, a converted 200 year old barn built by Simon Veeder that commemorates the original chapel and contains a museum downstairs. At the far west end of the property on Route 5 stands the Blessed Kateri Retreat and guest house, established in 1984. The Conventual Franciscan Friars established the shrine in 1938 at the request of the most Rev. Edmund F. Gibbons, bishop of Albany, and have continued its administration to the present.