Restin' in St. Therese's Oblate Cemetery Mystery Cache
Hidden : 9/27/2017
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


The posted coordinates are for St. Therese's Oblate Cemetery. This cache is a simple field puzzle in the cemetery.

This is an extremely unusual cemetery. I have been to hundreds of cemeteries through geocaching and never found one like this. I haven’t found any evidence that another oblate cemetery exists in Ontario, and I am not aware of any others in Canada (and a brief google search didn’t clearly identify any present sites).

This cemetery is dedicated to oblates, in this case, specifically the group called “St. Peter’s Province”. I did a little research on this which I will share with you. Before this cemetery I was not familiar with the term Oblate at all. The definition of the word in this context is “a person dedicated to a religious life, but typically having not taken full monastic vows.”

I was able to find a website that has a good description of the order:

“The Advancement of Roman Catholic (RC) Religion by the formation, administration & support of the priests and religious brothers of the OMI Congregation (hereinafter referred to as Oblates); by establishing, operating & maintaining places of worship, engaging in pastoral activities; Advancement of Education by providing schools & facilities and academic & religious instruction in the doctrine & teachings of the RC Church; Relief of Poverty by caring for the poor & sick & by providing on-going care, maintenance & support of the retired & infirmed oblates & by providing for missions established & operated by the corporation outside of Canada; Funding Other Qualified Donees which are in pursuit of purposes consistent with the purposes of the corporation.”

Why this site? The downtown parks (Robert Simpson, Gillies Grove, and Galilee) were all part of the Mclachlin lumber baron’s estate. The estate was broken up in the 1940’s. In 1946 the Oblates purchased what is now called Galilee, and it was the initial training grounds for members of St. Peter’s Province until the early 1970’s. Galilee remains a national center for the oblates, and is considered their common starting point. With Galilee as a sort of Oblate “capital”, this is where many choose to be buried. As of 2003 there is a monument listing oblates buried elsewhere, which continues to be updated.

As you will see, this is clearly still an active cemetery, with very distinct, matching markers displayed in a way that reminds me of a military cemetery.
And now finally, to find the cache: Locate first burial in the cemetery, and perform a projection of 56m at a bearing of 183 degrees to find the geocache. The geocache is available in winter, however finding the correct grave to project from may be tricky depending on snow depth and melting patterns.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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