Canadian Martyrs

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Canadian Martyrs
North American Martyrs.jpg
Holy card depicting the martyrs
BornFrance
Died17th century, Canada and Upstate New York
Martyred by Iroquois
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Anglican Church
Beatified June 21, 1925, Rome, by Pope Pius XI
Canonized June 29, 1930, Rome, by Pope Pius XI
Major shrine Martyrs' Shrine, Midland, Ontario, Canada
National Shrine of the North American Martyrs, Auriesville, New York
Feast September 26 (in Canada and among Traditional Roman Catholics)
October 19 (General Calendar); Anglican Church of Canada
Patronage Canada

The Canadian Martyrs (French : Martyrs canadiens), also known as the North American Martyrs (French: Saints martyrs canadiens, Holy Canadian Martyrs), were eight Jesuit missionaries from Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. They were ritually tortured and killed on various dates in the mid-17th century in Canada, in what is now southern Ontario, and in upstate New York, during the warfare between the Iroquioan tribes the Mohawk and the Huron. They have subsequently been canonized and venerated as martyrs by the Catholic Church.

Contents

The martyrs are:

NameDate of deathPlace of deathMeans of death
René Goupil September 29, 1642Ossernenon, near Auriesville, New York tomahawk to the head [1]
Isaac Jogues October 18, 1646Ossernenon, near Auriesville, New York tomahawk to the head [2]
Jean de Lalande October 19, 1646Ossernenon, near Auriesville, New York tomahawk to the head [3]
Antoine Daniel July 4, 1648Teanaostaye, near Hillsdale, Ontario shot [4]
Jean de Brébeuf March 16, 1649St. Ignace, near Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, Ontario boiling water and fire at the stake [5]
Gabriel Lalemant March 17, 1649St. Ignace, near Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, Ontario boiling water and fire at the stake [5]
Charles Garnier December 7, 1649near Collingwood, Ontario shot [6]
Noël Chabanel December 8, 1649 Nottawasaga River, Ontario tomahawk to the head [6]
Jesuit map Jesuit map NF.jpg
Jesuit map

Background

Jesuit missionaries worked among the Huron (Wendat), an Iroquoian-speaking people who occupied territory in the Georgian Bay area of Central Ontario. (They were not part of the Iroquois Confederacy, initially made up of five tribes south and east of the Great Lakes.) The area of their traditional territory is called Huronia. The Huron in this area were farmers, fishermen and traders who lived in villages surrounded by defensive wooden palisades for protection. [7] Sainte-Marie among the Hurons was the headquarters for the French Jesuit Mission to the Huron Wendat people. [8]

By the late 1640s, the Jesuits believed they were making progress in their mission to the Huron, and claimed to have made many converts. But, the priests were not universally trusted. Huron and Iroquois were rivalries. French explorer Jacques Cartier in the 1540s made the first written records of the Indians in America, although French explorers and fishermen had traded in the region near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River estuary a decade before then for valuable furs. Cartier wrote of encounters with the St. Lawrence Iroquoians,[6] also known as the Stadaconan or Laurentian people who occupied several fortified villages, including Stadacona and Hochelaga. He recorded an on-going war between the Stadaconans and another tribe known as the Toudaman.

Wars and politics in Europe distracted French efforts at colonization in the St. Lawrence Valley until the beginning of the 17th century, when they founded Quebec in 1608. When the French returned to the area, they found both sites abandoned by the Stadacona and Hochelaga and completely destroyed,[7] and they found no inhabitants in this part of the upper river valley—although the Iroquois and the Huron[7] used it as hunting ground.[6][8] The causes remain unclear, although some anthropologists and historians have suggested that the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy destroyed or drove out the St. Lawrence Iroquoians.[7] Many Huron considered them to be malevolent shamans who brought death and disease wherever they travelled; after European contact, the Huron had suffered high fatalities in epidemics after 1634 of smallpox and other Eurasian infectious diseases.

The nations of the Iroquois Confederacy considered the Jesuits legitimate targets of their raids and warfare, as the missionaries were nominally allies of the Huron and French fur traders. Retaliating for French colonial attacks against the Iroquois was also a reason for their raids against the Huron and Jesuits.

In 1642, the Mohawk captured René Goupil, [1] and Father Isaac Jogues, [2] bringing them back to their village of Ossernenon south of the Mohawk River. They ritually tortured both men and killed Goupil. After several months of captivity, Jogues was ransomed by Dutch traders and the minister Johannes Megapolensis from New Netherland (later Albany). He returned for a time to France, but then sailed back to Quebec. In 1646 he and Jean de Lalande were killed during a visit to Ossernenon intended to achieve peace between the French and the Mohawk. [3]

Other Jesuit missionaries were killed by the Mohawk and martyred in the following years: Antoine Daniel (1648), [9] Jean de Brébeuf (1649), [5] Noël Chabanel (1649), [6] Charles Garnier (1649), [6] and Gabriel Lalemant (1649). [5] All were canonized in 1930 as the Canadian Martyrs, also known as the North American Martyrs.

Legacy and honours

Martyr's Shrine, Midland, Ontario Matyr's Shrine.JPG
Martyr's Shrine, Midland, Ontario

The martyrs were canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930. [10] They are collectively the secondary patron saints of Canada. St. René Goupil, St. Isaac Jogues, and St. Jean de Lalande are the first three U.S. saints, martyred at Ossernenon, 9 miles (14.5 km) west of the confluence of the Schoharie and Mohawk rivers. Their feast day is celebrated in the General Roman Calendar and in the United States on October 19 under the title of "John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs," and in Canada on September 26.

The Martyrs' Shrine in Midland, Ontario, [11] the site of the Jesuits' missionary work among the Huron, is the National Shrine to the Canadian Martyrs.

A National Shrine of the North American Martyrs has been constructed and dedicated in Auriesville, New York. [12] It is located south of the Mohawk River, near a Jesuit cemetery containing remains of missionaries who died in the area from 1669 to 1684, when the Jesuits had a local mission to the Mohawk.

Churches dedicated to the Canadian Martyrs

Churches dedicated to the martyrs include the following:

Schools dedicated to the Canadian Martyrs

Many schools also honour the martyrs, including the following:

Municipality named after the Canadian Martyrs

The torture of the martyrs by the Iroquois is the subject depicted in the twelve-light World War I memorial window (1933) by Charles William Kelsey at the Loyola College (Montreal) chapel, at the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes on the campus of Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland, and a side shine at Madonna Della Strada Chapel on the campus of Loyola University Chicago. Fordham University additionally has named the Martyrs' Court residential complex in their collective honour, as well as individual halls in the complex being named for Jogues, Goupil and Lalande. The North American College in Rome has a crypt chapel dedicated to the North American Martyrs.

The martyrs are also honoured at Camp Ondessonk, a Catholic summer camp in Ozark, Illinois, where each unit of cabins is named after one of the martyrs, and also at the American Martyrs Retreat House in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohawk people</span> Indigenous First Nation of North America

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isaac Jogues</span> French Jesuit missionary and martyr (1607-1646)

Isaac Jogues, SJ was a French missionary and martyr who traveled and worked among the Iroquois, Huron, and other Native populations in North America. He was the first European to name Lake George, calling it Lac du Saint Sacrement. In 1646, Jogues was martyred by the Mohawk at their village of Ossernenon, near the Mohawk River.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrine of the Canadian Martyrs</span> Church in Ontario, Canada

The Shrine of the Canadian Martyrs, commonly known as the Martyrs' Shrine, is a Roman Catholic church in Midland, Ontario, Canada, which is consecrated to the memory of the Canadian Martyrs, six Jesuit Martyrs and two lay persons from the mission of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. It is one of nine national shrines in Canada, including, among others, Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal and the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antoine Daniel</span> French Jesuit missionary and martyr (1601-1648)

Antoine Daniel was a French Jesuit missionary in North America, at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, and one of the eight Canadian Martyrs.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auriesville, New York</span> Hamlet in New York, United States

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Father Simon Le Moyne, S.J., sometimes spelled Simon Le Moine, was a French Jesuit priest who became involved with the mission to the Hurons and Iroquois in the Americas. Le Moyne had acquired sixteen years of education and experience through priesthood in France before his arrival in New France in 1638. During that same year, he headed out to his mission in Huron country. The destruction of the Huron nation by the Iroquois brought him back east to what is modern day Quebec in 1650.

<i>The Jesuit Relations</i>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Shrine of the North American Martyrs</span> Church in the United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp Ondessonk</span> Catholic youth camp

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Eustache Ahatsistari was a Huron warrior. He is famous for his conversion to Catholicism and his death at the hands of the Iroquois. Ahatsistari was captured alongside St. Isaac Jogues and several other Huron prisoners in 1642 and was tortured and executed. He is notable for his conversion to Christianity and his role in the lives of early French missionaries in the Americas.

References

  1. 1 2 Jesuit Relations: 28, "Account of René Goupil (donné)," by Father Isaac Jogues
  2. 1 2 Jesuit Relations: 31, VIII
  3. 1 2 Jesuit Relations vol 34, LXIV
  4. Jesuit Relations vol 33, LXVII
  5. 1 2 3 4 Jesuit Relations vol 35, IV
  6. 1 2 3 4 Jesuit Relations vol 40, LXXXIII
  7. "Canadian Martyrs and Huronia", Athabasca University
  8. Sainte Marie among the Hurons
  9. "Jesuit Relations, vol 33, LXVII". Archived from the original on 2016-03-21. Retrieved 2007-01-17.
  10. "Celebrating the 350th Anniversary of the Canadian Martyrs" (PDF). Conca can Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  11. Martyrs Shrine, Midand Ontario
  12. Martyrs' Shrine, Auriesville Archived 2008-05-09 at the Wayback Machine
  13. "Martyrs' Shrine".
  14. "Chapel of the North American Martyrs | Jesuit High School of New Orleans". www.jesuitnola.org. Archived from the original on 2017-06-24.

Further reading