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Saint Jean de Brébeuf and the North American Martyrs
Image: Thwaites, Reuben Gold, 1853-1913 · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Saint Jean de Brébeuf and the North American Martyrs

Eight missionaries killed among the nations of North America in the 17th century

Rank
Saint
Kind
Martyr, Missionary, Priest
Life
1593 – 1649
Era
17th century
Feast
19 October
Countries
France, Canada, United States
CanadaUnited StatesFrance

Life story

Jean de Brébeuf was born in Normandy in 1593, entered the Jesuits in 1617 and was ordained a priest. In 1625 he sailed for Canada and soon went to the Huron (Wendat) country near present-day Georgian Bay. He learned their language, recorded their customs and compiled a vocabulary and grammar. When the English took Quebec in 1629 he had to return to France, but he came back in 1633 and resumed life among the Huron.

The Jesuits' work in Huronia was made hard by epidemics carried from Europe and by war between the Huron and the Iroquois. Many Huron suspected the missionaries of bringing the illness. According to tradition, the Huron Christmas hymn known as Jesous Ahatonhia was written by Brébeuf. Beside him worked the priests Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier, Noël Chabanel and Isaac Jogues, and two lay helpers, René Goupil and Jean de Lalande.

Goupil was killed in 1642, and Jogues and Lalande were killed at Ossernenon, in present-day New York, in October 1646. On 16 March 1649 Iroquois warriors attacked a Huron village near the mission settlements and captured Brébeuf and Lalemant, who died after being tortured. Garnier and Chabanel were killed in December of the same year.

The eight were canonised by Pius XI in 1930. In 1940 Pius XII named them secondary patrons of Canada. Because they worked across France, Canada and the United States, their story belongs to all three countries. Their feast is kept together on 19 October, and their story is still told in the shrines and museums built on the sites of the old missions.

Works and witness

  • Brébeuf lived among the Huron from 1626 and learned their language
  • Compiled a Huron vocabulary and grammar
  • Traditionally credited with the Huron Christmas hymn
  • Brébeuf and Lalemant killed on 16 March 1649
  • The eight were canonised in 1930

Patron of

Canada

Saints from the same country

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Joan of Arc, Saint Francis de Sales

References

  • Martyrologium Romanum
  • Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
  • The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.