Betania! | Spirit Daily Blog

Kate Sanborn has shared with us, her humor, wit and her story of Breezy Meadows. She has left a legacy and there is no question that she truly loved and enjoyed her farm properties, and today, one cannot help but realize that we have perhaps inherited some of her prosperity. The two farms have become religious sites where many gather daily looking for peace and consolation as Miss Sanborn once did, and it is no wonder that the Indians named the Medway property, “the land of the holy face.”

Some older inhabitants have always called Miss Sanborn’s Breezy Meadows a “mecca;” “a place that people with certain interests are eager to visit,” and, since that time, after many years of neglect, this place is once again being known as a mecca. In 1993, beneath the ground at the entrance to Breezy Meadows in Medway, a stone bearing an image was uncovered by a visionary from Venezuela who is calling this likeness, “the face of Jesus.”

Through the years, lots of stories have evolved around the property of Breezy Meadows. Some felt the old farmhouse was haunted, as mentioned earlier; others sensed demons on the property, and still others have said they always felt a presence of some sort after entering the wooded area. Perhaps Miss Sanborn knew something about her Breezy Meadows that many are still trying to discover. Undoubtedly, there was or is a “presence” there because Miss Sanborn found nothing but happiness and contentment at her farm and today visitors are feeling that same sensation and are searching for a certain holiness on the same ground.

Still a mystery is the “Lodge,” built by Miss Sanborn, and located at the far end of the property where embedded within its walls is a stone face, the significance of which cannot be explained.

Whatever the case may be, the old farm, now empty and somewhat forbidding, and the meadows, Miss Sanborn often referred to, now surrounded by an overgrown forest, are quiet and desolate, lacking the life they once knew. The well-kept roads intertwining through the property that were once enjoyed by Miss Sanborn while riding in her horse and carriage, are now filled with roots and muddy ruts.

Breezy Meadows has lost its life and its name after the many years of neglect and abandonment. The home that Miss Sanborn ambitiously up-dated in the summer of

The local Indigenous people of that area—the Nipmuc tribe—spoke an Algonquian language. Their place names were entirely descriptive of the natural geography, such as Wenakeening (which means “pleasant pleasant place” or “good land”),

Third, the nearby Wenakeening tradition may be the source of the confusion. Wenakeening Woods adjoins the Betania II property. A local trail-history exhibit says local lore translated Lake Wenakeening as “Smile of the Great Spirit,” but then immediately says recent research found no documentation that Native Americans gave the name; it now appears more likely that local resident Abner Morse created “Wenakeening” in the early 19th century because it sounded romantic.

That is important: “Smile of the Great Spirit” is close enough in religious tone to be later blended with “face of Jesus,” but it is not “holy face,” and even that “Great Spirit” translation is presented by local researchers as undocumented lore. The Holliston Reporter article by Joanne Hulbert, doing a deeper local-language inquiry, says a search in the Natick dictionary left the origin of Wenakeening unclear; Frederick Morse Cutler later theorized it came from wunnegen, meaning “it is good” or “it is pleasant,” and the article notes that translations have varied: “pleasant waters?” “Smile of the Great Spirit?”

The genuine Indigenous background is that the area was originally Nipmuc territory. The Medway Historical Society says the town area was home to the Nipmuc before English settlement, and the nearby Holliston/Medway trail materials also state that the land around Lake Winthrop/Wenakeening was occupied by the Nipmuc when English settlers arrived.

So the best verdict is:

Not proven, and probably not true in the literal historical sense. There is evidence for a Catholic “face of Jesus in a stone” story connected to Betania II. There is also local lore about nearby Wenakeening meaning “Smile of the Great Spirit,” but that lore itself is disputed and may be a 19th-century romantic invention. I found no evidence that Native people named the Medway Betania property “the land of the holy face.”

A more accurate way to write it would be:

Local lore around nearby Wenakeening has sometimes spoken of a “Smile of the Great Spirit,” though recent research questions whether that was truly an Indigenous name. Separately, Betania II’s own history recounts that Maria Esperanza found a stone on the Medway property whose markings resembled the face of Jesus — a discovery taken by devotees as a providential sign.

That preserves the mystery without overstating the historical record.