Please see the Travel tab for more details on the shuttle, which will run from The Heathman, to the Church, to the Botanist House (and back!).

We both.... ...were born in Massachusetts ...are left-handed ...went to Montessori school ...moved to Oregon in the same year ...had rabbits as our first pets ...took French in high school ...took Italian in college ...own striped shirts ...have been parishioners of St. Cecilia's & St. Patrick's ...lead h.s. youth group at St. Cecilia's, where we met, and then attempted to date awkwardly, like high schoolers ...The rest is history!

Paul Miki, a Japanese Jesuit, and his twenty-five companions were martyred in Nagasaki, Japan (familiar to Americans as the city on which the second atomic bomb was dropped, killing hundreds of thousands). Three and a half centuries before, twenty-six martyrs of Japan were crucified on a hill, now known as the Holy Mountain, overlooking Nagasaki. Among them were priests, brothers and laymen, Franciscans, Jesuits, doctors, artisans, servants, old men and innocent children—all united in a common faith and love for Jesus and his church. While hanging upon a cross, Brother Paul Miki, a Jesuit and a native of Japan, preached to the people gathered for the execution. "...I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you to become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ's example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain." They were all killed simultaneously by being raised on crosses and then stabbed with spears. Their executioners were astounded upon seeing their joy at being associated to the Passion of Christ. When missionaries returned to Japan in the 1860s, at first they found no trace of Christianity. But after establishing themselves they found that thousands of Christians lived around Nagasaki and that they had secretly preserved the faith. Beatified in 1627, the martyrs of Japan were finally canonized in 1862.

St. Dorothy, a virgin from Caesarea in Cappadocia, allegedly suffered a martyr's death under Diocletian. Her relics are honored in a church dedicated to her in the Trastevere section of Rome. As Dorothy was being led to execution because of her faith in Christ, she prayed, "I thank You, O Lover of souls, for having called me to Your paradise." Theophilus, an official of the Roman governor, jestingly retorted, "Farewell, bride of Christ, send me apples or roses from your Bridegroom's garden of bliss." Dorothy answered, "I most certainly will." While devoting herself to prayer during the few moments permitted before receiving the death stroke, she beheld a vision of a beautiful youth who carried three apples and three roses in a napkin. She said to him, "I implore you to take these to Theophilus." Soon the sword severed her neck, and her soul returned to God. As Theophilus was mockingly telling his friend of Dorothy's promise, a young man stood before him holding a linen in which were wrapped three beautiful apples and three magnificent roses. "See, the virgin Dorothy sends you these from the garden of her Bridegroom, even as she promised you." Highly astonished, for it was February and everything in nature was frozen, Theophilus received the gifts and cried out: "Truly indeed, Christ is God." Soon he too died a martyr's death for publicly confessing the faith.