Saint Kateri Habitats

Create healthy habitats for people and wildlife, at home and in your parish.

Anyone can transform a yard, garden, school, farm, or parish into a Saint Kateri Habitat.

Habitat-Sign
Saint Kateri Habitat yard sign

 

Saint Kateri Habitats

At the heart of our mission lies the understanding that care for creation begins at home, within ourselves, our families, parishes, and local communities.

What Are Saint Kateri Habitats? Saint Kateri Habitats are sanctuaries that go beyond providing essential resources for people and wildlife; they are living, sacred spaces that embody the harmonious coexistence of faith and ecological stewardship. These habitats offer food, water, cover, and space for all beings, becoming places of prayer and contemplation that rejuvenate faith while preserving the spiritual and material gifts of creation.

Inspiration for Restoration: Saint Kateri Habitats serve as inspiring examples for Catholics and all people of goodwill, encouraging the restoration and thoughtful management of homes, yards, gardens, parishes, schools, farms, parks, forests, wetlands, and rivers. These spaces are not merely landscapes but expressions of reverence and gratitude for God’s creation.

Connecting God, People, and Nature: Our Saint Kateri Habitats program centers around God and faith, offering a platform for direct engagement in the care of God’s creation at home and within local communities. By restoring habitats with reverence and gratitude, the program aims to draw individuals closer to God and His Church while safeguarding the integrity of creation.

Religious Expression on the Land: A key aspect of Saint Kateri Habitats is the inclusion of a religious expression on the land. This gentle reminder of God’s omnipresence can take the form of a cross, shrine, statue of Mary or a saint, or any other Catholic religious symbol. We welcome the participation of individuals from other faith groups, recognizing the universal call to care for our shared home.

Encouraging Restoration for All: The Saint Kateri Habitats program extends an invitation to individuals, families, parishes, schools, religious orders, and working landowners to restore and manage their land in ways that praise God and foster a deeper connection between God, people, and nature.

Embark on Your Habitat Journey: Transforming your home, school, workplace, parish church, or open land into a healthy habitat for people and wildlife is a tangible and accessible endeavor. Whether planting a tree, cultivating a vegetable garden, or growing wildflowers for bees and butterflies, anyone can contribute to the vision of Saint Kateri Habitats.

Join us in the beautiful journey of nurturing sacred spaces, where faith and conservation flourish in harmony. 🌿🙏

Statue of Saint Kateri at the Saint Kateri National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, NY

What You’ll Need for Your Saint Kateri Habitat

Embarking on your journey to create a Saint Kateri Habitat is a fulfilling endeavor, one that harmoniously blends ecological stewardship with spiritual expression. Here’s what you’ll need to cultivate a space that nourishes both the Earth and the soul:

Essential Elements: Saint Kateri Habitats provide at least two of the following five elements, complemented by one religious expression:

  1. Food, water, cover, and space for people and wildlife:
    • Vegetable gardens, pollinator gardens, patio gardens.
    • Restored habitats and rewilded yards.
    • Community-supported agriculture.
    • Grasslands, shrublands, forests, wetlands, rivers, and lakes.
    • Healthful schools and workplaces that foster well-being.

  2. Native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers:
    • Promote beauty and biodiversity, including habitat for pollinators.
    • Some non-native plants are acceptable, as long as they are not invasive.

  3. Ecosystem Services:
    • Contribute to clean air and water.
    • Store carbon for climate regulation.

  4. Clean, renewable energy and sustainable practices:
    • Conservation of soil, water, and energy.
    • Utilization of solar and wind energy.
    • Waste reduction.

  5. Sacred and Sacramental Places:
    • Prayer and contemplation spaces.
    • Mary Gardens, prayer gardens, and shrines.

Religious Expression: The religious expression may include statues of Mary, Saint Francis of Assisi, or other saints; crosses, shrines, grottos, angels, or Saint Kateri Habitat signs. This expression serves as a constant reminder that God—the Holy Spirit—is present and active in every corner of creation.

How To Start Your Habitat: It’s easy. Plant something. Concentrate on plant species that are native to your region.

How to Register Your Habitat: Applicants for the Saint Kateri Habitat designation are invited to submit a simple, confidential, online registration form. Please consider sharing photos of your habitat by emailing them to saintkatericenter@gmail.com to inspire others.

Participation Details: Participation in the program is free. While participants may make a voluntary donation of $20 to support the program, it’s not necessary to register your habitat. Catholics worldwide are invited to register their Saint Kateri Habitats.

Participant Benefits: Participants receive a personalized certificate, guidance from the Center’s professional ecologists, recognition on our online story map pages (the original Catholic habitat registry and mapper!), and the option to purchase yard signs designating their site as a Saint Kateri Habitat.

Privacy Assurance: The precise location of private property will remain confidential, with habitats listed by parish name only.

Saint Kateri Habitats: Beyond Material, Spiritual Sanctuaries: More than healthful material habitats, Saint Kateri Habitats are spiritual sanctuaries, offering a glimpse of the reflection of God.

Helpful Resources: Visit our helpful links page for advice on creating a habitat or park. Explore another Center project, the Native Plants Mary Garden Design, to learn about creating a Mary Garden with native plants as a Saint Kateri Habitat.

Our Collective Goal: Our aspiration is to have at least one Saint Kateri Habitat in every parish in the USA. With more than 17,000 parishes and 60 million Catholics in the country, the potential for Catholic conservation is vast.

Join us in this transformative journey of faith and conservation. Let your habitat be a living testament to the beauty of God’s creation. 🌿🙏

Get Involved: For more information about Saint Kateri Habitats and the Parish Arks Initiative, reach out to us at saintkatericenter@gmail.org. Join us in this transformative journey where faith, conservation, and community converge to create a sustainable and loving home for all. Together, let’s build a future where God’s creation flourishes. 🌍🌿

See our Saint Kateri Habitat Story Map!

Want to learn how to create a habitat? Visit our helpful links page.

Links to blogs and articles to help you create and sustain Saint Kateri Habitats

Your Support is Needed: As a non-profit organization, we are primarily funded by small donations from individuals who share our passion for faith and conservation. Your contributions directly support Saint Kateri Habitats, Parish Arks, Indigenous Peoples Program, and other critical programs. Bless you.

Aplos

“Perhaps, before we can care for our global common home, we must first love, value, and nurture our own corners of creation.”

– Bill Patenaude, founding board member, environmental engineer, theologian, and author

Visit our Story Map which shares the basics of our Saint Kateri Habitats program, or take a tour of all habitats by clicking the buttons to the right!

We depend on you.

Please support our efforts to promote Catholic faith, integral ecology, and life.
Our work is funded primarily by individual donations like yours.

“We’re not going to solve the environmental and climate crisis on the large scale. We’re going to solve it over and over again where ordinary people live and work. So I’m not at all discouraged when I hear about small steps. That’s what gives me hope. I recognize that large-scale efforts seem to be frustrated, but I don’t think that’s the main story.”

Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J. 

Find a native plant nursery near you!

Sources of Native Plants, by state. This is an external link and is not an endorsement or guarantee of accuracy. http://www.plantnative.org/index.htm. You may find additional sources by searching for native plants for sale in your state on Google or other search engine.