The North American Martyrs

Between 1642 and 1649, eight Jesuits were martyred for their efforts to evanglize the Mohawks, Hurons, and Iroquois tribes of what is now upstate New York and part of Canada.  St. Isaac Jogues heads the list and is probably the best known because of the famous biography, Saint Among Savages, by Father Francis Talbot, S.J., while St. John de Brebeuf is named as well.  The rest are lumped under "Companions" and usually remain "hidden and unkown", but I will remove the veil of anonymity since they all serve as models for us:  They are:  Charles Granier, Anthony Daniel, Gabriel Lallemant, Noel Chabanel, John de Lalande and Rene Goupil.  Rene, my patron saint, was a "donne", that is, an aspirant to the Jesuits, but Isaac Jogues received his Jesuit vows before his death.  He was tomahawked for either teaching children how to make the sign of the cross, or blessing them with the sign of the cross.  Little did I know that I would follow so closely in his footsteps when during my fourteen years among the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) on the Pine Ridge Reservation, did I do those very things.  The tomahawk, however, was not in the cards for me, thank God.
These men understood the missionary nature of our Christian faith...not to be kept for "me" alone, but to be spread to others.  They suffered beatings, tortures, mutilations ( some of St. Isaac's fingers and thumb were chewed off, so that he had to have special permission to say Mass using his remaining digits) and finally death.  Their blood became the seed of faith and today, the Mohawks are devout Catholics, and among them is Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the "Lily of the Mohawks".   We might be moved by their example to take that extra step today to make our faith more evident in a society which encourages "the privacy of relgion" by living the message of love, forgiveness, compassion and selflessness exemplified by these martyrs.
Bro. Rene