The North American Martyrs

St. Isaac Jogues and Companions
September 26

One of the eight Frenchmen known as the North American Martyrs, the Jesuit priest Isaac Jogues' first task when he arrived in Quebec in 1636, was to learn the Huron language. His teacher was Father Jean le Brébeuf, another Jesuit. Brébeuf earlier had written Instruction, a collection of data based on his years of living among the Hurons since 1625. His practical advice included tips for conduct: eating with the Indians, sharing their camps, caring for the ill in view of "medicine men's" feelings. It was "helpful for many situations," its introduction stated, "both the predictable and the unexpected."

Isaac Jogues was born at Orleans in 1607. His father died soon after his birth, leaving him to the sole care of his mother, a woman worthy of having a son an apostle. Under her guidance, Isaac grew up a devout, "sensitive" and cultured child. He was not satisfied with doing for God what he was obliged to do, but desired to give generous proof of his love by doing what was most acceptable to the Divine Majesty. As a Jesuit novice he was enthralled with their many missionaries, most of whom were in Ethiopia and the Indies. After reading in Jesuit Relations of the Martyrdom by fire of Fr. Spinola in Japan, he carried his picture always.

His humility led him to request that he have his studies in theology discontinued and be sent to America as a lay-brother, because, he said, he "wanted in ability." This, even though he was noted for his talent in composition and oratory. In 1636, after being ordained, giving his good mother his first priestly blessing and Holy Communion, his wish was granted; he was assigned as a missionary to the Indians in New France (Canada).

In his farewell letter to his mother, he wrote consoling her. "I hope as I said on another occasion, that if you take this little affliction in a proper spirit, it will be most pleasing to God, for Whose sake it would become you to give not only one son, but all the others, nay, life itself, if it were necessary. Men for a little gain cross the seas, enduring at least as much as we, and shall we not, for God's love do what men do for earthly interests?" He asked her prayers for a safe trip and added: "Good-bye, dear Mother, I thank you for all the affection which you have shown me, and above all at our last meeting. May God unite us in His Holy Paradise if we do not see each other again on earth!"

The following excerpt from one of his few letters to his superiors reveals his wholesome regard for mankind in general, and souls in particular. During his imprisonment while the Dutch tried to ransom him, he wrote: "Let not regard for us prevent you from doing that which is to the glory of God. The design of the Iroquois as far as I can see, is to take, if they can, all the Hurons; and having put to death the most considerable ones and a good part of the others, to make one nation of these poor people, several of whom are Christians, the others Catechumens and ready for Baptism; when shall a remedy be applied to these misfortunes? I become more and more resolved to dwell here as long as it shall please Our Lord, and not to go away even though an opportunity should present itself. My presence consoles the French, the Hurons and the Algonquins. I have Baptized more than sixty persons, several of whom have arrived in Heaven. That is my single consolation, . . . "

His total concern is for all those within reach of his love and compassion: the governor, whom he asks not to extend himself, for the two young Frenchmen who accompanied him, for the souls of his catechumens; none whatsoever for himself. He was noted for his long hours of quiet prayer on his journeys and for saying the Rosary with his companions. This prayer life must have given him the vision to, as we say, "put his priorities in the right place!" He understood by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that each and every soul is of incalculable value before God. God's grace had taken care of his soul; it was now his duty to take care of the souls of others!

Early in 1644 Fr. Jogues sailed to Montreal and ministered again to the Hurons while waiting for a chance to return to the Mohawks. Two years later he was sent to Ossernenon, the principal Mohawk village, to negotiate a peace agreement between the Iroquois Nation-----of which the Mohawks were a part-----and the French. After meeting for a week, Jogues left for Quebec with news of success and a plan to return again to Ossernenon.

Unfortunately, the Mohawks had poor crops that year, and an epidemic broke out. They believed that the box containing vestments and religious articles which Jogues had left behind caused these disasters. As he was returning to the village from Quebec with John de La Lande and some Hurons, some members of the Mohawks' Bear Clan invited Jogues to a dinner. As he stooped to enter their longhouse on Oct. 19, 1646, he was tomahawked to death. The next day they killed La Lande. Perhaps this was the "unexpected" le Brébeuf could not prepare him for.

Four years before his death, Fr. Jogues had journeyed back to France to recuperate from torture at the hands of the Mohawks. There his own brother did not recognize him, and when hearing that this man had been in New France, asked if he had met his brother, Isaac! At that time, due to his illness and disability, (his hands were badly mutilated-----so much so that he could not say Mass), his Jesuit superiors asked him to stay and teach in a college, but left him free to make his own decision. Naturally, he returned to "save the Mohawks." His trust of his torturers accompanied him to the end.

His eight years in America included six years during which he lived with, and converted many Hurons. Certainly none of these or their ancestors would say it had been for naught. As for Fr. Jogues himself, his desire was to be a Martyr for Indian souls. Knowing this, his confreres, upon hearing of his death, celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving instead of the usual Requiem.

The North American Martyrs were beatified on June 21, 1925 and were canonized on June 29, 1930; their Novus Ordo Feast Day is October 19th, September 26 on the Traditional calendar. Two shrines commemorate them. One is at Auriesville, NY, the Ossernenon of old. The other at Midland, Ontario, near the site of Old Fort Ste. Marie of the Hurons.

These Martyrs were among the earliest Saints of North America. All were French born Jesuits: Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, Antony Daniel, Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier, and Noel Chabanel, priests; and John La Lande and René Goupil, lay-brothers. They selflessly worked among the native Hurons until they met their death at the hands of mortal enemies of the Hurons: the Iroquois and the Mohawks. The Iroquois were animated by the bitter hatred of the missionaries, whom they subjected to indescribable tortures before putting them to death.


 Antony Daniel

 (Born at Dieppe, France, on March 27, 1601; died July 4, 1648) studied law but abandoned it to join the Jesuits at Rouen in 1621. He taught in Rouen for four years, studied theology at Clermont, was ordained in 1630, and was then assigned to the college at Eu. With three other priests he was sent as a missionary to Cape Breton Island, Arcadia, New France (Canada), in 1632. A year later Fr. Daniel went to Quebec. He was successful in his missionary work among the Hurons, even founding a school for Native American boys at Quebec in 1636. In 1648, Fr. Daniel was Martyred by a party of Iroquois at the Indian village of Teanaustaye near Hillsdale, Ontario.

Gabriel Lalemant (Born at Paris, France, 1610; died 1649) joined the Jesuits in 1630. He taught at Moulins for three years, and after further study at Bourges, was ordained in 1638. After teaching at La Flèche and Moulins, he was sent to Canada at his request in 1646 as a missionary.

Charles Garnier

Though Garnier has been canonized and therefore his memory is still green, yet we find few who know much about him. But what an impression he must have created by his character and his presence that even dim memories are alive today. Scarcely was he dead than his fellow missionaries Fathers Leonard Garreau, Simon le Moyne and René Menard are high in their praise of his apostolic work and life. Warmly they recall to mind this great souled apostle, the very acquaint-ance of whom was an inspiration to greater things.

In his report of 1650, Father Paul Ragueneau hastened to outline his life. In fact, he starts in immediately to gather notes for a process of canonization, and Father Joseph Marie Chaumonot did not hesitate to call upon Garnier's aid (as one would a Saint) to gain for himself the grace of a greater facility in speaking the native tongues. In Quebec, Mere Marie de l'Incarnation who, though never meeting him, had written to him and received letters from him, mourned his passing. She said: "A very large volume would be needed to tell the story of this reverend Father . . . He was extraordinarily humble, gentle, obedient and filled with many virtues" (Marie de l'Incarnation to her son Claude, August 30, 1650).

The story of Father Charles Garnier and his tragic death were well known across Europe within twenty-five years of his martyrdom. Starting, of course, with Father Paul Ragueneau's report, the story would be taken up by various writers of the Jesuit Order: Alegambe at Rome, Du Creux at Paris, and Tanner at Prague. Unfortunately, however, the misfortunes of the Jesuits and their suppression in 1773, and the final disappearance of the Order in Canada, with the death of Father Jean Joseph Casot, cast a shadow over the memory of Charles Garnier. But it still lived on until he was beatified June 21, 1925, and canonized June 29, 1930.

Charles Garnier was born on the 25th of May, 1606, in Paris, in the parish of Saint Gervais which claims to be the parish church of two of the Canadian Martyrs. Besides Father Charles Garnier the parish is also proud to claim Father Gabriel Lalemant. Charles Garnier was descended from noble and distinguished families. His father, Jean Gar-nier, was one of the Under Secretaries of Henri III and later was placed in charge of the Treasury in Normandy. Father Charles' grandfather was an officer in the Royal Army and suffered martyrdom because he refused to give up his Catholic faith. Father Charles' mother, Anne de Garault, was from a noble family of Orleans. Unfortunately, she died just a few years after his birth.

The young man studied at Clermont College, one of the oldest of the Jesuit schools of France, and later entered the Society of Jesus, on the 26th of September, 1624. After finishing his novitiate, Charles Garnier returned to his Alma Mater, the College of Clermont, as Pre-fect over the students. At the same time he carried out his studies in rhetoric and philosophy. After this course was finished he was sent to the College of Eu as a teacher in the lower grades of the school. He spent two years there and was then ordered back to his old school for the study of theology.

He was ordained a priest in 1635. It is about this time that the young Father Garnier expressed a desire to go on the missions and particular-ly the missions of New France. His zeal for the conversion of the Indians was real and ardent. His superiors consented but laid down a condition that nearly ruined matters. The condition was that he should obtain the consent of his father; but the latter was entirely opposed. Father Charles therefore had to put off his departure for an entire year. This obstacle only served to increase his ardor for the foreign missions.

In an early life, or sketch rather, of Father Charles Garnier, it is said that his thoughts were so constant in this matter that night and day he thought only of working for the salvation of the Indians. He was deter-mined to spend his life, even to his very last breath, on the missions. It is also said that in his dreams God gave him the foresight to realize the possibility and the dangers of the death he was to die. His zeal, how-ever, made light of this foretaste of danger. He had many an argument with his father until at last, with great regret, his father consented. Father Charles Gamier finally set out and arrived at Quebec on the 11th of June, 1636.

The Huron name for St. Charles Garnier has been given as Ouracha. The meaning of this name has, so far as I know, never been given, but we can probably find the meaning through Father Pierre Potiem's "Radices Huronicae" published in the 15th Report of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, (p.452).

It is tempting to think, considering the accusation that was so often made against the missionaries of bringing a drought down upon the Indian and the country, that Gamniem may have been, in the minds of the Hurons, associated with the ending of such a drought, and in that case we would almost say that his name meant "rain bringer" or "rain cloud." As such, and we know this is true, he would nearly always be welcomed in an Indian village. Certainly the words as given in Father Potier's work would help us to think this way.

The difficulty of the crossing and the apostolic zeal and effort of the new missionary are well described in a letter written to his father imme-diately after the crossing." . . . Although I did not experience any great difficulty or danger and our Captain took every came to make the crossing as pleasant as possible, it is evident that the voyage is not without its crosses. And this is particularly so for a member of a religious order because he has no privacy away from the noise and the crowd in order to pray. I don't mention here those other inconveniences and sea sickness which takes the heart out of one.

"What particularly pleased me was the sight of my flock coming to the Sacraments. Over and above special feast days some received Holy Communion on Sundays and ordinary days. Almost all also went to Holy Communion on the two greatest feasts, that is on Pentecost and Corpus Christi. In this they followed the examples of our leader and of Monsieur de Montmagny. These last have given us good examples in many other things but particularly in the came they have taken of the sick, particularly of one poor family on board, giving them the best of what they had, even giving up something themselves.

"Lest I be too long, I will say nothing of the Christian regulations enacted and put up aboard the vessel against swearing, theft, and quarrelsomeness.

"We gave Viaticum to a sailor who had fallen from the top of the mizzenmast to the deck. He was well-disposed to die. However, as I saw him in great discomfort, unable to sleep, I gave him my cabin and went in with Father Chastelain in his, but the sick man found this cabin too stuffy so the next day I occupied it again but left him my mattress so he could sleep even in the midst of the cannons. Hearing this, the Captain made me take one of his
. . . .

"That is something of what has taken place on our voyage. If any good comes out of it may the glory be given only to God. On my part at least I am certain that I was lacking a good deal in humility and that I offered many a hindrance to the plan of God by my laziness. Through His goodness he conducted us without incident to Quebec the 11th day of June, the eve of St. Barnabas Day, the one surnamed Joseph, in the ship named after this great Saint.

"We embarked on the octave of the Feast of Our Lady's Annunciation, so much so that I can well say that under the safeguard of the Holy Virgin and hem Glorious Spouse, we finished this crossing without incident."

 Father Charles had no desire to stay in Quebec. His heart burned to go on to the Mission of the Hurons. "If for me Canada is a holy and sacred temple, which God made for me in this world, the Huron country is its holy of holies . . . let us, therefore, leap for joy in this land of blessing." In this same letter he says he cannot give greater details. "I really do not have the time, because any moment now, I am waiting for the means to take Father Chastelain and myself to meet the Hurons . . . God willing in six or seven hours, that is at dawn, I will be leaving to go to the Hurons" (July 20, 1636). Of the long and usually painful journey-----a trip of some 800 or 900 miles Father Garnier says little, though he did send a short note to Father Paul le Jeune telling of the trip (August 8, 1636).

"May God be forever blessed! Since yesterday we have been here among the Nipissings. So happy and in such good health that I am ashamed of it. . . . He has treated the child as a child: I did not paddle; I carried only my own baggage, except for three days during the portages when I carried a little package that someone offered me because one of our Indians fell ill. Is that not being treated like a child? . . . We arrived at the island on the eve of the Feast of St. Ignatius. We bought some Indian corn because our peas gave out. This corn lasted us until we reached here. Our Indians did not have any at least they found only one cache of it. Up to the present we have found but little fish. We are expecting Father Davost here today."

On August 12,1636, after a relatively short and favorable journey, the new missionary was welcomed with open arms. Of course, he must start slowly, even though he had the consolation of baptizing a little Indian boy and naming him Joseph in honor of St. Joseph.

One of his first experiences was to haunt him for his whole life, for in it he saw what could be his own fate. He never got over the horror of his first sight of the torture of an Iroquois captive. The missionaries did, however, Baptize the victim.

 That first year was also one of a terrible crisis among the Indians and it threatened to bring martyrdom to all the missionaries. Both the natives and the missionaries, among whom was Garnier, fell victims to the ravages of small pox. But, worse still perhaps, the Indians looked on the blackrobes as causing it. "Because, you should know, Father, that Jesus Christ has honored us with some of His sufferings. In this country, we have been cried out against like pests everybody was looking at us as if we were going to make them die. . . we were urged to take that pest out of the country" (Letter of 1638). As a matter of record, it may be noted that all the Fathers present wrote and signed a letter. "We are perhaps on the point of shedding our blood and giving our lives to serve our good Lord Jesus Christ." However, God did not then exact the sacrifice of their lives. In the letter (1638) already quoted, he gives a summary of a year's work. With varying degrees of success this would be a description of all he ever did in Huronia.

 "My daily work, so far, has consisted of visiting Indian huts and seeing the sick, so as to instruct and Baptize them when they are in danger; and most of the sick were in serious danger of death, and even several of them died. You know how much money you spent to have me learn the profession of surgeon. This is the type of work I do in this country. I don't operate, but tend a multitude of small wounds and burns. But, to come back to Baptism, in this one village alone, thank God, we have baptized approximately 100 since I came. Up to this day, of these 100 Indians baptized, 44 died shortly thereafter, that is 24 adults and 20 children, most of whom were infants . . . .

"Again you wonder whether I am progressing with the language, and if I can make myself understood. Yes, thank God, I can do it pretty well. . . . In France they think we have lots of free time (here) to devote to our friends, and that is where they are wrong. Quite often I cannot find 15 minutes to study during the day because of the frequent visits I have to make and the many interruptions by the Indians when we are in our cabin . . . .

"We are beginning to catch our breath, and they are mistaken, those who think that all we have to do to convert the Indians is to show them a Crucifix. It is more difficult than they think.

"Father Pierre Pijart and I were sent to the mission of the Apostles. This is in the Petun nation, where I had already spent the previous winter. We received a very poor welcome the first year. The second, they looked upon us with less jaundiced eyes. We found some persons, thank God, who listened to us. With the help of God, patience and perseverance will win out. It is true that these missions are full of crosses. There is the difficulty of the trails during the winter, there is the food, the clothing, the lodging, the smoke, etc., but the principal obstacle is the difficulty in which we find ourselves of praying and get-ting a little rest away from the noise. There is also the deprivation of Mass, which we either cannot say at all, or only very seldom. We thought that on two occasions we were about to lose our lives on the trail. One time it was on a frozen lake where the evening that we crossed it two Indians died of the cold, etc.

"My dear brother, pray for us that God may keep us and make strong the courage that He gives us. We sorely need it" (June 23, 1641).

"Let us say a word about our Huron missions. You know well that, in years past, we spent the winter in the mission of the Apostles or the Tobacco nation, while others worked among the Neutrals, or mission  of the Angels. As you know, we had undertaken to bring the Gospel to these nations as well as to the Hurons. But this year we made only a few trips to the mission of the Apostles, scarcely stopping there, and have given up our mission among the Neutrals; firstly, because Father John de Brébeuf, who was with them last year, remained this winter in Quebec, and secondly, because we have learnt from experience that these people are converted only after long and solid instruction. The result has been that this winter we have reduced our commitments concentrating on the apostolate of the principal Huron villages.

"Fathers Mercier and Ragueneau spent the winter giving instruction in the village of the Immaculate Conception, Reverend Father Lalemant and Father Chaumonot at St. Michael and St. John the Baptist, Father Chastelain and Father Pijart devoted themselves to visiting from time to time several villages nearest to this house and Father Le Moyne and I were assigned to the village of St. Joseph as our share. In all these places we have higher hopes than ever before. 

"To come down to the particulars of my task, we were used to going every day to instruct some Christians of St. Joseph, but both they and we were deprived of the consolation of Holy Mass, there being no chapel in this village. . . . But Our Lord inspired one of our Christians to offer one end of his cabin for this purpose. . . . We turned the end of the cabin offered us into a chapel to St. Joseph, which was ready in time for his feast. From that time on we experienced great consolation in assembling our Christians there, and the devotions we held were of great help to them. The greater number came to hear Mass in this chapel every day and came regularly to confession here on Saturdays" (May 22, 1642).

A few years later he would write:

"I am still in this village of St. Joseph with Father René Menard. We have a little congregation that we are trying to preserve and increase, with the grace of God, which appears quite visibly to us; not that there is a movement towards the Faith on the part of very many persons, as the village is greatly diminished in population, and its people are slow and lagging in embracing the Faith . . . .

"Hardly have we time in the morning to make our meditation, when the Christians come to Mass. During Mass we are occupied in making them pray, and in saying a few words to them, to maintain them in devotion. After our Masses . . . we take the opportunity to instruct them in the Catechism or in pious practices, or we even teach them some prayers.

"The rest of the day is spent in similar exercises. . . . In brief, sunset time has come, when we say the prayers again, at which they attend. At last, we are quite surprised that the day is over" (June 7, 1645).

A letter written in 1648 speaks of his labors among the Petuns.

"I told you that my Superior sent me along with Father Garreau, to a new mission called the Petun nation. We gave it the name of the mission of the Apostles. I call it a new mission because, although the late Father Jogues and I were there in 1639, and Father Pierre Pijart in 1640, still we did hardly anything but baptize a few sick and a few adults . . . . But finally, when these Petuns asked for some of our missionaries, partly to instruct them and partly to frighten their enemies-----by reports that the French lived in their territory Father Garreau and I were sent. He was to instruct the Algonquins who lived among the Petuns . . . and I was to instruct the Hurons. We stayed in a town inhabited by Hurons and Algonquins.

"There the Father worked hard all the winter of 1646 learning the Algonquin language. He made such progress that by spring the Algonquins listened to him as he spoke of the mysteries of our Faith. But the devil, all too scared that these people would escape from the captivity in which he had held them for so many centuries, found means to disperse them and separate them from this Father who had begun to work their deliverance. He caused a quarrel between the Hurons and Algonquins by a murder. An Algonquins was massacred one night and the murderer could not be found. The Algonquins accused the Hurons, left the village of Ekarenniondi where they had been staying and went to join another Algonquin tribe, a two days' trip away.

". . . we have worked together since last summer principally in two Huron villages that are four leagues apart. One is called Ekarenniondi, dedicated to St. Matthias, the other Etharita, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist. We have a small chapel in each. In both villages there are a few Christians and a large number of catechumens. The latter are kept in that status much longer than in our other older missions. . .

"Father Garreau and I are almost always separated from each other. He might spend ten days or two weeks at one village and I the same time at another, then he and I would get together for two or three days. So that is how we live, without companionship except that of our good Angels and the poor Indians whom we instruct. We have to admit, though, that because we are alone God gives us more grace and consolation" (April 28, 1648).

But we are now coming to the end. The Martyrdom of Fathers Daniel, Brébeuf and Lalemant had a tremendous effect on him. In a letter (April 25, 1649) he would say: "How happy I should be to die with this little flock of the Master, just as three of our Fathers died for Him in the past year; I refer to Fathers Anthony Daniel, Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant. Father Daniel was killed on July 4th while ministering to his little flock in the village of St. Joseph. You already know that I was changed from there two years ago. May God be praised for having seen fit to punish me for my sins by denying me the crown that He has given to Father Daniel. This holy father begged his people to escape but he himself preferred to remain behind to save as many souls as possible. You will read an account of his holy death in the Relations as well as the account of Fathers Brébeuf and Lalemant. I recall the latter at college as a student and boarder. He came here only last summer and was given the Martyr's crown at the end of this winter with Father Brébeuf."

Father Paul Ragueneau gives us the first authentic account of Father Garnier's death.

"For many years we had two missions with two Fathers in each of them in the hills which we called the nation of the Petuns. The one nearest the enemy (Iroquois) was that of St. John, which contained the village of the same name with about five or six hundred families. It was a mission field watered by the sweat of one of the finest missionaries of the whole country. It was also to be watered with his blood, because he died with his flock and brought them to Heaven with him. The day was at hand when God wished to turn it into a church triumphant, though up to that time it was always militant and might well go under the name of church suffering.

"We received news about the end of the month of November from two Christian Hurons who had escaped from a band of about three hundred Iroquois that the Iroquois were still undecided whether to turn towards the Petun nation or attack the island where we were stationed. Thereupon, we tightened our defenses and held back our Hurons who had plans of starting out on a campaign against the advancing enemy. At the same time we immediately sent word to the Petun nation, who were overjoyed. They looked upon the enemy as even then conquered and upon themselves as already victors. They stood firm for some days but soon tired of waiting for victory to come and seek them out. . . They set out in short order, fearing lest the Iroquois would slip through their hands when they wanted to surprise them still on the march. They left on the fifth of December (1649) and moved towards the place where they expected to find the Iroquois, but they (the Iroquois) had made a detour and were not anywhere to be found. To add to our mis-fortunes, as the Iroquois were approaching the village, they captured a man and a woman who were just leaving the place. They learned from the two captives the state of the place and knew it was stripped of the greater part of its people, so they seized the favorable opportunity and immediately proceeded to plunge the town into a torrent of fire and blood.

"It was on the seventh of December last year, 1649, that this group of Iroquois arrived at the gates of the village and cast unrestrained dismay and terror among the poor people, just when they thought that they were the conquerors . . .

"The cruelty was inconceivable. Children were snatched from their mothers' arms and thrown into the fire; other children saw their mothers laid prostrate at their feet or writhing in the flames without either side showing the slightest sign of compassion. It was a crime even to shed a tear. Those barbarians forced their victims to march in their captivity as they themselves marched in their triumph.

 "Father Charles Garnier was the only one of our Fathers at the mission at the time. When the enemy appeared he was visiting the cabins and instructing the people, but when the alarm was given he came out and went straight to the church, where some Christians had gathered. 'We are facing death, my brethren,' he said to them, 'pray to God and take flight by any possible avenue of escape. Cherish your faith for the rest of your life and may death find you thinking of God.' He gave them his blessing and immediately set out to help other souls. No one thought of putting up a defense and everyone gave up entirely.. . In his zeal he was everywhere at once, now giving absolution to the Christians he met, now running from one blazing cabin to another to baptize, in the very midst of flames, the children, the sick, and the catechumens. His own heart burned with no other fire than that of the love of God.

"It was in these holy duties that he met his death, which he neither feared nor avoided by a single step. One bullet from a gun pierced the upper part of his chest and at the same time another bullet went through the lower part of his abdomen and lodged in his thigh . . .

"The good Father was seen very shortly afterwards joining his hands and saying some prayers. Then turning his head here and there, he saw a poor creature about ten or twelve feet from him who, like himself, had just received his death blow but had still some life left in him. His love of God and zeal for souls were again stronger than death. He rose to his knees and, after a prayer, stood painfully and moved as best he could towards the agonizing man to help him die well . . .  Some time later the Father received two blows from a hatchet, one on each temple, that went right to the brain. That was the richest reward that he had hoped to receive from the goodness of God for all his past services. His body was stripped and left naked on the ground.

 "Two of our Fathers, who were in the nearest mission to him took in a few surviving Christian fugitives, who arrived out of breath, several of them being covered with their own blood. All night long theme was a series of alarms as everyone was tense with the fear that they would be visited with the same disaster. At daybreak they learned from some spies that the Iroquois had departed.


Noel Chabanel

(Born near Mende, France, on February 2, 1613; died December 8, 1649), after joining the Jesuits in 1630, was sent to New France in 1643 to evangelize the Hurons. He became assistant to Fr. Garnier at Etarita in 1649 and was murdered by an apostate Indian while returning from a visit to neighboring Sainte Marie. The two Fathers left at once to see the sad spectacle with their own eyes. It was a sight worthy in God's sight. There were corpses everywhere, one on top of another, of some poor Christians half burned in the remains of the fire-swept village, of others drenched in their own blood. . . . At last, in the middle of the ghost town, they came across the body they had come to find, but it was hardly recognizable, all covered with blood and ashes from the fire that had swept over it. But some christian Indians recognized their Father who had died for love of them. They buried him on the spot where the church had been, though there was no trace left of the church. It had been swallowed up in the flames.


John de la Lande and René Goupil 

When Isaac Jogues returned to Canada from France to resume his missionary work, he asked for an assistant. His Jesuit superior offered him John de la Lande, a permanent lay volunteer.  Born in Dieppe, the young Belgian had come to New France as a settler sometime before 1642-----but once there, he offered himself to the Jesuits, desiring to devote his life to the service of God by working with the missionaries. Upon hearing that Fr. Jogues wanted a companion, John volunteered to help. The veteran missionary spoke to the young man with great frankness, describing the hardships and rigors of missionary life, warning that there might be captivity, torture (such as Jogues himself had already suffered), and even death. Nevertheless, the description of possible privations and suffering could not undo la Lande's determination. It is said that he took Fr. Jogues' mutilated hands into his own and professed his desire to share his future, even if that future were to include Martyrdom.

When John de la Lande was told of the murder of Father Jogues, he was also advised to not to leave the lodge under any circumstances because the Mohawks were hoping to kill him as well. Eventually, however, the thought of the body of Fr. Jogues, perhaps lying unburied somewhere in the village, overcame John's caution. He wondered whether it might be possible, under cover of darkness, to locate the body, recover some articles that Jogues had taken with him, and send them as holy relics to the Jesuits in Quebec. As he ventured out of the lodge, a tomahawk crashed down upon his head. It was early morning on October 19, 1646. When daylight came, the bodies of Isaac Jogues and John de la Lande were thrown into the Mohawk River, and their heads were exposed on the palisades enclosing the Mohawk village.


 René Goupil was born at Anjou, France. Amazingly, ill health forced him to leave the Jesuits, yet he was willing and able to accompany the missionaries after he had become a successful surgeon. In 1638, he went to Quebec to work among the Jesuit missions as an attaché to the hospital in Quebec. He became a lay assistant for the mission to the Hurons in 1640. While on a journey with Isaac Jogues in 1642, he was captured by a group of Iroquois and tomahawked to death on September 29 at Osserneon near Albany, New York, for making the sign of the cross on the brow of some children. He was the North American protoMartyr.

St. Jean de Brébeuf

Brébeuf was born in Condé-sur-Vire, Normandy, France on March 25, 1593. He became a Jesuit in 1617. In 1625 he sailed to Canada as a missionary, arriving on June 19, and lived with the Huron natives near Lake Huron, learning their customs and language, of which he became and expert; although the missionaries were recalled in 1629, Brébeuf returned to Canada in 1633. He unsuccessfully attempted to convert the Neutral nations on Lake Erie in 1640. In 1648 the Iroquois attacked Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, where Brébeuf was living, and he was captured and tortured to death on March 16, 1649.

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