One of the Nine

I did not feel that I should paint all nine of the saints celebrated on this day.  However, St. Isaac Jogues has always been an interesting twist to the martyrdom of the nine Jesuits who try to spread the Good News to the natives in the north east and into Canada.

Feast Day:  October 19
Born:  1607
Death:  1646
France
Born into a middle class family
Patron: Americas; Canada

Schooled from home until he was 17 years old, Isaac entered a school of higher learning and felt called to the missionaries in the New World.  Soon after being ordained in 1636, Isaac fulfilled this desire and traveled to New France. He was assigned as a missionary to the Huron and Algonquian allies of the French.  Less than six months of his arrival, he became sick along with many of the other missionaries and the natives.  The natives blamed these illnesses on the missionaries and threatened to have them killed, however, the epidemic ended allowing the missionaries to stay.

In 1641, Isaac and others were sent out on a mission to the west.  They were soon welcomed into a village and asked to tell more about the faith.  Traveling by canoe to reach the Huron village, Isaac and  small group traveling with him were was captured by a war party of Mohawk of the Iroquois Confederacy.  The men were tortured and at this time Isaac lost two of his fingers.

Jogues survived this event and lived as a slave among the Mohawk for some time; he tried to teach his captors about Christianity. A party of Dutch traders from Fort Orange ransomed him and gave him money for passage down the Hudson River to New Amsterdam (New York) and a return to France.

Upon his return, he was treated as a "living martyr" and praised for his work among the natives of the new world.  He was even given special permission (a dispensation from Pope Urban VII) to celebrate Mass with his mutilated hands.  His only desire was to return to complete his missionary work among the Huron.

When Isaac Jogues returned to Paris after his first capture and torture, he said to his superior: "Yes, Father, I want whatever our Lord wants, even if it costs a thousand lives." He had written in his mission report: "These tortures are very great, but God is still greater, and immense."

He returned in 1646 after a treaty was made with the natives.  However, soon after his return another epidemic broke out along with a crop failure.  The natives blamed this on the missionaries and on October 18, 1646, Isaac was attacked with a tomahawk and killed.

SIDE NOTE:  Ten years after the martyrdom of St. Isaac Jogues, Kateri Tekakwitha was born in the same village in which he died.

St. Isaac Jogues and companions, pray for us!