North American Martyrs

 Today we have the feast of The North American Martyrs: Isaac Jogues, Renee Goupal, Gabriel Lallement, John de Brebeuf, Anthony Daniel, Noel Chabanel, Charles Garnier, John Le Lande. 

 The Memorial is celebrated on 19 October as a group, they each have a feast day all their own.  Canada celebrates their feast on 29 September.  The Anglicans also venerate them today as if I care about that..

 These are the Jesuit missionaries who were sent to Canada to minister to the “Noble” American Indians of Canada and Upstate New York.   As many of you know, there is a modern round church dedicated to this group of martyrs in Queens NY.   

 Contrary to current popular belief, these folk were martyred, not because they were imposing their beliefs on the indigenous “honorable” people, but rather they were preaching peace…a concept lost on the warlike and politically incorrect Mohawks, who loved to kill, enslave  and generally mess with the peaceful Iroquois and Lenape.    In fact, in the language of the Lenape the Mohawks are called “Opanu Nan”; which is often translated as “angry people.”    Add to that, local changes in rainfall, crop failures, disease, ill luck, and other unpredictable phenomenon and invariably the Jesuit “Black Robes” were blamed by the superstitious Mohawks who noticed the climate changes while taking a break from sharpening their tomahawks.   

 Anyhoo, each of these martyrs have their own horrible stories, specifically Saint Isaac Jogues.  Father Jogues was a Jesuit Priest and a teacher sent to Canada in 1636 to work among the Hurons and Petuns in the area of the Great Lakes.  He taught the Faith to any who would listen.

 Our saint was captured and tortured for 13 months by the Mohawks.   They physically mutilated him most notably by cutting off his thumbs, index and middle fingers, the finger he used to impart blessings, and the source of all the perceived difficulties. .   He was released through the help of some Dutch settlers and sent back home.   The Pope granted Isaac a dispensation to continue to say mass and give blessings with the stumps of his fingers…. He returned to Canada and Upstate NY to continue his work among the Mohawks. He eventually met his fate in Upstate New York on 18 October in 1646 at the business end of a Tomahawk to the head while trying to negotiate peace between the Mohawks and the Iroquois.  His head was displayed on a pole and his body thrown in to the Mohawk River.   His individual  feast day is on the 18 October.