Meet the new caretakers of the National Shrine of St. Thérèse

The desire for more prayer opportunities and to serve others brought a couple north to serve as the new caretakers at the National Shrine of St. Thérèse in Juneau.

Deacon Peter Nguyen and his wife, Professor Loni Nguyen, recently took on the joint role of caretakers at the Shrine. He’s a retired information technology computer analyst for the Public Library of Los Angeles County who was ordained a Catholic deacon in 2013. Loni is a tenured biology professor at Mt. San Antonio College who’s on sabbatical.

“I was seeking a monastic lifestyle where through prayer and work I can dedicate my life to God,” Deacon Peter said. “We were seeing one of our projects was coming to an end. It was time to consider what God has in store for us at this stage.”

The couple moved from the Los Angeles area recently.

“Southern California was shut down during the pandemic. It was in lockdown mode,” Loni said. “We decided, ‘well we don’t have to stay in southern California,’ and thought of Ketchikan. Many years ago on our first cruise, we stopped by Ketchikan.”

Holy Name Catholic Church in Ketchikan still operates the ‘Port to Pew’ program Loni mentions. The program provides tourists a ride to and from Ketchikan’s cruise ship docks to Holy Name for Mass.

The experience at Ketchikan’s Catholic church stayed with them when looking at the map and figuring out where in the north to find a new home.

“They were wonderful people in the church. We never encountered in any other city the ‘Port to Pew’ program,” Loni said.

Father Mike Galbraith, who was the pastor at Holy Name at the time and currently oversees the Shrine, mentioned an opening for a caretaker at the Shrine.

“Both of us thought this is what we’ve been praying for: A perfect coincidence with what we are seeking,” Peter said. “We came in January 2024 and visited the shrine. It was the most calming place we ever looked at and feel honored to take on the role for at least a year.”

Loni and Peter Nguyen were born in Vietnam and came as children to the U.S. after the fall of Saigon in 1975 when she was five and he was 10 years old. They were raised in southern California and married in 1999. Peter said he made an early vow to God that if He brought him a loving partner-in-faith wife, he would devote his life to the church.

“In 2008, we were at a retreat when a call came up for the diaconate,” Peter said. “We looked at each other and thought, this is what we feel called to do. It was a five-year commitment for both husband and wife. Loni participated in all the classes. But she isn’t ordained at the end of it, though she learned all that I did alongside me.”

Though only in position for a few weeks, the Nguyens are finding opportunities to reflect on faith amidst the many busy tasks at hand for care of the shrine. Given the 100-200 pilgrims a day who visit the shrine, the pace is quick. Small pockets of time in the early morning and later at night offer prayerful opportunities. They clean and prepare the church at those times, which provides bookends for 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. prayer and reflection.

A shrine caretakers’ tasks include greeting visitors, helping prepare cabins for incoming guests, checking out guests, managing reservations, stocking the gift shop, opening and closing the gate, cleaning public restrooms, preparing the columbarium for committal, mowing the lawn, and other duties that arise.

“This work is a ministry because if you don’t have love in your heart and prayer in your work you can get run down in your work. We do everything with great love and calm here, from greeting the pilgrims to cleaning bathrooms to cleaning cabins that need changing out for guests. At the same time, we keep the chapel clean,” Peter said. “There’s 46 acres here, so it’s a lot of grass to mow. There’s also a small gift shop on the grounds that we keep stocked for the pilgrims.”

The shrine is open year-round, though only the summer months are as busy as it is now.

Peter has been able to forgo blood pressure medication due to the practices and measured influence of the holy shrine of St. Thérèse, known as the Little Flower of Jesus. The shrine’s fame has spread during the century since the first cornerstone was laid in 1938. People arrive from all over the U.S. on pilgrimage to the Shrine with the saint who coined a spirituality based on her unique philosophy: Miss no single opportunity of making small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.

“Overall, it’s been a very lovely experience so far. I would like to spend more time contemplating the graces I’ve been receiving,” Peter said. “It’s a calming place, I can tell when I take my blood pressure.”

The Shrine is dedicated to St. Thérèse of Lisieux who lived from 1872-1896 in Lisieux, France. Though she died at age 24, she carried a simple yet powerful message that still resonates in the hearts of millions today. She promised to spend her heaven doing good on earth. She authored “Story of a Soul.”

St. Thérèse of Lisieux is the patron saint of the missions of Alaska and the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau.