While it is physically located within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, it is owned and operated independently by the Friends of Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine, Inc.[1] The original church was built in 1884.

[4] Rene Goupil, a surgeon and later Jesuit lay brother, and Father Isaac Jogues were brought to the Mohawk settlement of Ossernenon.

[5] Jogues remained a captive for thirteen months before Dutch traders and minister Johannes Megapolensis from Fort Orange (present-day Albany) paid a ransom and gained his freedom from the Mohawk; they arranged for his transportation by boat to New Amsterdam (present-day New York City), from where he returned to France.

The news of this change of sentiment spread rapidly, and though fully aware of the danger, Jogues continued on his way to Ossernenon.

Auriesville is on the south bank of the Mohawk River, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Albany, New York.

In the nineteenth century, research on the part of Catholic historian John Gilmary Shea and Gen. J. S. Clarke of Auburn, who had studied Indian sites both in New York and Huron territory, led to their believing they had identified the former site of Ossersnenon, where Father Jogues and his companions died.

In 1884, Father Loyzance purchased 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land on the hill where the village had been located, and erected a small shrine under the title of Our Lady of Martyrs.