The Fruit of the North American Martyrs

(October 19 - Sts. John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests and martyrs, and their companions, martyrs)

Today we celebrate the memorial of the North American Martyrs. These holy men, mostly Jesuit priests, were sent to Quebec in the 1620s and 1630s. St. John de Brebeuf settled in St. Charles, a former landing site of Jacques Cartier, and lived among the natives amongst the wigwams. About five months after arriving in Canada, he accompanied the Indians to Lake Huron in a canoe. During that time, his life was in constant danger. For about four years, he did have to return to France because Samuel de Champlain had surrendered Quebec to the English in 1929. But in 1633, he returned to the Great White North because Quebec had come back into French hands.

Over the next sixteen years, he labored (or should I say “laboured”) amongst the natives and worked to evangelize several small tribes as well as larger groups of Huron Indians. In 1649, however, the Iroquois had captured Brebeuf and his companions. The Catholic Encyclopedia reports what happened:

“On entering the village, they were met with a shower of stones, cruelly beaten with clubs, and then tied to posts to be burned to death. Brébeuf is said to have kissed the stake to which he was bound. The fire was lighted under them, and their bodies slashed with knives. Brébeuf had scalding water poured on his head in mockery of baptism, a collar of red-hot tomahawk-heads placed around his neck, a red-hot iron thrust down his throat, and when he expired his heart was cut out and eaten. Through all the torture he never uttered a groan. The Iroquois withdrew when they had finished their work. The remains of the victims were gathered up subsequently, and the head of Brébeuf is still kept as a relic at the Hôtel-Dieu, Quebec.”

St. Isaac Jogues also worked with the Huron Indians. But soon after he arrived in upper New York state, he got sick and was blamed for starting an epidemic. Over several years, his reputation bounced back and he ministered to the Native Americans. However, when traveling to Quebec in 1642, he was captured by the Mohawks where he was enslaved, tortured, and mutilated. During that time in captivity, he interacted with those in the village and performed some of the first baptisms in New York.

Some Dutch settlers helped him escape and return to France. But in 1646, he went back to New York to serve the Mohawks. He was captured by a hostile group of some of the Mohawks and the old rumors of being the cause of illness caught up with him. Near Lake George and the present day city of Auriesville, New York, he was captured, stripped naked, slashed with knives, beaten, and then led to the village where he was struck with a tomahawk and then decapitated.

But the story does not end there.

Ten years later, in New York, a Mohawk girl was born. Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother was a Christian from the Algonquin people living near Auriesville, New York, where St. Isaac Jogues witnessed to the love of Christ and gave his life in martyrdom. Left orphaned and partially blind by a smallpox epidemic, the Lily of the Mohawks began religious instruction and was baptized a Catholic on Easter Sunday 1676 and was given the name Kateri (“Katherine”).

This beautiful saint endured persecution for her faith and had to flee 200 miles to receive her First Holy Communion. She lived a virtuous life of faith and died at the age of 24. She became the first Native American Indian to be canonized a saint in the Roman Catholic Church in October 21, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Her feast day is July 14, but we celebrate her canonization two short days after celebrating the saints who brought the Faith to her people.

St. John de Brebeuf, St. Isaac Jogues, and St. Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us!