St. Catherine’s Chapel at Massey College was given a major status upgrade Tuesday, when Queen Elizabeth II designated it the third Chapel Royal in Canada.

The Chapel Royal originated as a group of religious leaders and singers that followed the monarch around to attend to their spiritual needs. But King Henry VIII expanded the designation by creating physical Chapel Royal spaces in many of the royal palaces in the 1500s.

This prestigious designation was created through a collaboration between the Crown, the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation and Massey College as a gesture of reconciliation, in time for National Aboriginal Day on Wednesday and Canada’s 150th anniversary.

“We hope it becomes an icon of discussion about where we’ve been and how we move forward,” said Sandra Shaul, who worked on the project.

The college sits on treaty lands that are the territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.

To celebrate this connection, the chapel has been given an Anishinaabek name: Gi-Chi-Twaa Gimaa Kwe, Mississauga Anishinaabek AName Gamik, meaning “The Queen’s Anishinaabek sacred place.”

While Chapels Royal, also called Royal Peculiars, have existed in the British Isles since the 11th century, Canada is the only Commonwealth country that has maintained the tradition of creating them, said Shaul.

Before Tuesday’s announcement, there were only two Chapels Royal in Canada, in Brantford and Deseronto, Ont., both the products of the unique relationship between the Crown and the Mohawk Nation.

Shaul said the project was inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 45, which calls on the Government of Canada to build on the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Treaty of Niagara of 1764.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 affirmed the nation-to-nation relationship between the British monarchy and the Indigenous nations they interacted with. The 1764 Treaty of Niagara included at least 24 Indigenous nations and was meant to be to be the foundation for all future treaties in the land that is now Canada, the news release said.

John Fraser, the former master of the college, and Hugh Segal, the current master, originally had the idea for the third Chapel Royal in 2015, which was approved by the Mississaugas of the New Credit.

By September 2015, the Queen had also approved the plans, and it was decided that the initiative would be unveiled this year.

An official launch is planned for September, which will involve visits from royal representatives, an unveiling of a mural by Indigenous artist Philip Cote, depicting the story of treaties and their aftermath, and the presentation of two new windows for the college by Sarah Hall, who is working with the Mississaugas of the New Credit to create images of their council fires and of a wampum belt.

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The college will also host the first annual Chapel Royal Symposium in September, which will focus on moving forward in Indigenous-settler relations in Canada, Shaul said.

Note – June 22, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that referred to Queen Elizabeth II as the Queen of England.