Sts. Jean de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues

Sts. Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, and their Companions — the North American Martyrs — were French Jesuit missionaries and their lay helpers who carried the Gospel to the Huron and Iroquois peoples of New France in the first half of the seventeenth century, and who sealed their preaching with their blood. Enduring cold, hunger, exhausting journeys by canoe, and the deep suspicion of those they came to serve, they gave themselves wholly to the salvation of the native peoples.

Isaac Jogues, after being captured and horribly mutilated by the Mohawks, escaped and returned to France, only to go back to the same people as a missionary of peace and to be martyred at Ossernenon in 1646. Jean de Brébeuf, the tireless "Apostle of the Hurons," who mastered their language and composed for them a famous Christmas carol, was captured and put to death with heroic patience amid frightful tortures in 1649. Together with six companions, they were canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930 and are honored as patrons of the Church in North America, their feast kept on 19 October.