CrucisSt. Gabriel Lalemant
St. Gabriel Lalemant was born on 10 October 1610 in Paris, France, into a family that gave several of its sons to the Society of Jesus. Frail in body but resolute in spirit, he arrived in New France in 1646 and was assigned to the Huron mission, where he became a companion of the veteran missionary St. Jean de Brébeuf.
He had labored among the Huron only a short time when the Iroquois overran the mission of Saint-Louis in March 1649. Captured together with Brébeuf, the young and delicate Lalemant endured a night and day of terrible torture with a fortitude that belied his frailty, and died on 17 March 1649. Canonized in 1930, he is honored among the North American Martyrs, celebrated in Canada on 26 September and elsewhere on 19 October.
Selected quotes
“Stay faithful to the mission though your strength fails, for grace finishes what we begin.”
“God gives strength to the weak who trust him, that the frail may do what the strong cannot.”
“The body may be frail, but the soul anchored in Christ is unbreakable.”