Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Make Me a Man After Your Own Heart
Pere Isaac Jogues came to the New World in 1636. He came to Quebec, by ship across the Atlantic, then by boat down the St. Lawrence to the small trading village, but his mission was to the Huron Indians far to the west, in what is today known as Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. He was a Jesuit priest who asked Jesus to make him a man after His own heart, and Jesus answered his prayer abundantly.
The Huron people were people of the longhouse. The women grew maize in their villages in the fertile land they controlled, and the men hunted and trapped. They traded furs with the French, and when a group of them arrived at Quebec for that purpose, they agreed to take Pere Isaac back with them to their villages. Travel to the land of the Huron was not easy for the Frenchman. He was unused to crouching in a birchbark canoe for hours and had no skill with the paddle. He found it difficult to make himself useful when they camped each night, but he was able to cut wood for the fire with his hatchet.
The Huron people wished to remain friends with the French. French policy was to trade for guns only with Indians who were Christian, so they had an incentive to listen to the Jesuits, especially as their mortal enemies, the Iroquois, could easily obtain guns from the Dutch and the English. Pere Isaac arrived in a village that already had an established mission headed by Pere Jean de Brebeuf. Life in the mission was difficult, but it was a life Pere Isaac embraced. He and the other “Blackrobes,” as the Jesuits were called, sought to minister to people’s bodies as well as their souls, but because of many contagious diseases afflicting the Huron at that time, mostly from their contact with European germs but also because of their smoke-filled and oppressive longhouse life, distrust grew among the people. Rumors were spread from Indians who had contact with the Dutch or English that the Blackrobes were wicked and that they ate human flesh. After an initial success with conversions, the Blackrobes found themselves facing hostility and even threats for their lives.
Pere Isaac determined to go on a further mission to a group of people associated with the Huron called the Tobacco People, who were even poorer than the Huron people. They had also heard the rumors about the Blackrobes and determined to have nothing to do with them. In spite of opposition, the Blackrobes persevered and established a mission near what is today Midland, Ontario, in 1639, and Pere Isaac was placed in charge of it. Thousands of Hurons were baptized at the mission over the next several years.
In 1642, Pere Isaac was traveling back to the mission with thirty or so Christian Indians who were coming with him to serve as lay missionaries among their people when the group was attacked by a war band of fierce Mohawks, members of the Iroquois nation. The Mohawks quickly overcame the Hurons. Some Hurons escaped, Pere Isaac with them, but the others were captives. Pere Isaac, hiding safely among reeds, knew he had escaped detection, but the realization that his friends and brothers would be captives and slaves of their enemies drove him to stand up and join his friends.
As the Mohawk returned to their village with their captives, they passed through other villages. In each one, the captives were forced to run the gauntlet, which means that each prisoner had to run through double lines of Mohawks who spat, kick, jeered, hurled stones, and tortured them in creative ways. When they reached their own village, they decided not to kill Pere Isaac, but they nearly starved him to death. He had little clothing and shelter to face the long winter, and his friend Rene Goupil, a lay brother, had been cruelly killed after teaching little children the Sign of the Cross, which was seen as possible sorcery, and left for dogs to gnaw. Pere Isaac crawled through the ravine where Rene’s body had been tossed, looking for the remains in order to bury them.
After years of this torture, during which Pere Isaac’s hands were mangled by having some of his fingers chewed to the bone and some of his fingers burned off, he attracted the attention of a Mohawk matriarch, who became his “auntie,” and protector. She allowed a Dutch minister, a dominie, from the settlement in what is today Albany, to offer to help Pere Isaac escape, but he refused to leave his fellow captives. A year or so later, however, after Pere Isaac was able to get a letter to the French to warn them of the treachery of the Mohawks, and most of the Huron captives had already escaped, Pere Isaac realized it was time to go.
With his auntie’s and the dominie’s help, he got to a Dutch ship at anchor in the Hudson that took him to New Amsterdam, where he was given charity and cared for with honor until a vessel arrived that was heading back to Europe. After getting to England, he took a coal vessel to France, where he made his way, unannounced, to the Jesuit college at Rennes. The amazement of his brothers, who did not know if he was alive or dead, was great. It grew even greater when they realized he wished to go back to Canada as a missionary.
Because of Pere Isaac’s mangled hands, he could not follow the rubrics, or correct actions, of the Mass, that have to do with how the priest holds the Eucharist, so Pope Urban VII gave him a special dispensation as a living martyr to alter the rubrics and hold the Blessed Sacrament in his remaining fingers.
The war between the Huron and the Iroquois had continued to rage during Pere Isaac’s captivity, but after a peace treaty was negotiated in 1645, he returned in 1646 with a group of missionaries to the Mohawk village where he had been a captive on the banks of the Mohawk river 4o miles from Albany. However, the Mohawk people had turned away from peace, and in spite of his auntie’s continued attempts to protect him, Pere Isaac was killed on October 18, 1646. His fellow priest Pere Jean Lalande was martyred the next day when he attempted to retrieve his friend’s body.
At the end of the summer of 1647, a group of French and Algonquins met a war party of Mohawks. One Mohawk warrior was captured, and it came out that he was the man who had killed Pere Isaac. On September 17, 1647, he sought baptism and took the name Isaac Jogues as his baptismal name.
Today you can visit the site of the Mohawk village where Rene Goupil, Isaac Jogues, and Jean Lalande were martyred, the Shrine of the North American Martyrs at Auriesville. St. Kateri Tekakwitha was born in this same village several years after their deaths. This day, October 19, is the Feast of the North American Martyrs, including St. Rene Goupil, St. Jean Lalande, and St. Isaac Jogues. May they pray for us!
Published in Group Writing
Wow. So much for Rousseau’s “Noble Savage.”
That is an inspiring story, to say the least. People have suffered so greatly to cast light into the world. Thank you for telling this story.
A couple of footnotes to the story that I didn’t include for reasons of narrative:
The French liked the Hurons and thought that of all their native allies, they were the most likely to take to Westernizing, since they practiced farming and village life.
The dominie who helped Pere Isaac was also able to give him back his precious breviary, his book with all the liturgy for both the Mass and the Divine Office that was taken from him when he was first captured. One of the Mohawks had brought it to Albany seeking to trade or sell it. Pere Isaac took the book back with him into captivity.
Pere Isaac was the first Catholic priest to set foot in New Amsterdam/New York City. He also was the first European to see what is today Lake George and named it Lac du Saint Sacrement, which name it bore for 100 years until it was renamed by the British for King George II in 1755.
I have been to the shrine at Auriesville more than once. You can walk into the ravine where Rene Goupil’s body was tossed; it is a place of pilgrimage and peace today.
That is a powerful testimony.
This conversation is part of our Group Writing Series under October’s theme of Zeal. If you’d like to share someone who has or had a mighty zeal, we still have three openings this month, and two are on Sundays. What better day to share a zealous person? Sign up here.
In November, our theme is Elimination. Need to clean things up for the coming holidays? You can sign up to discuss it. Want to discuss how to get rid of clutter? Want to discuss eliminating toxic people from your life? Want to discuss eliminating toxicity from politics? Stopped a bad habit? Tell us how you did it. What ever you want to eliminate and however you want to eliminate it, you can sign up for a date in November here.
It makes me feel all choked up and tearful and joyful at the same time every time I contemplate that fact.
I have visited once myself, during a parish pilgrimage, on Canadian Thanksgiving day, in 2001, so it was all-but deserted. It still resonated powerfully. Many thanks and Blessed Feast, MT!
I think you must have been at the Shrine in Canada then? That’s on the site of the mission that Pere Isaac ran.
The one in New York, Auriesville, is on the site of the Mohawk village where he was killed and is west of Albany right on the Mohawk River. It usually closes soon after this feast day today.
I think both are not winterized.
We were at Auriesville – a side trip – the day after the feast, so it was doubly-quiet. All the better though. :-)
Ah. It was the Canadian Thanksgiving reference that threw me I guess.
Every time I’ve been to Auriesville it’s been quiet. The first time I went it almost seemed neglected, but it’s had a bit of a renaissance in the last five years or so.
Mama, I have been up for 2 nights with sick grandchildren, so I’m not sure of this — but isn’t the movie “Black Robe” based on the life of Pere Isaac? It is a difficult movie to watch, but the ending, as I remember, is tremendous.
If not, AQ, it resonates powerfully in many ways…ST introduced it to me some time ago, believe it or not.
I tried to go last year in late October as I was driving through the Mohawk Valley, but it was closed. I was very disappointed.
It may be, but the priest has a different name.
It’s based on this novel.
Here’s the trailer:
Francis Parkman’s “The Jesuits in North America” has a lot of information on Jogues.
I remember in grammar school reading a book called “The Mangled Hand”, which was about a missionary captured by Indians. It must have been about Jogues. Haven’t thought about that in decades.
I’m sorry, but this reads like an instruction manual for really bad decision making.
Going to Canada was adventurous and I’m good with that, but he “stood up” and surrendered to the savages? Who on earth did he think that would help? It would have been better to remain hidden so he could come back with an army to free his friends, or at least sneak into their camp at night to rescue them. That is something I would respect. I have none for that sort of surrendering.
Go with the Christian ideals, teach the religion, share your beliefs, agree to suffer consequences, all that I can understand if not agree with. What I do not understand is purposefully joining victims of torture rather than doing something constructive that might help them.
Hey, Pere Isaac. If I ever get captured and you don’t, please run and get help. Don’t join me in being captured. I’ll probably kill you myself if I weren’t a gentleman.
What “army”was he supposed to return with? He was on the frontier. The French didn’t have a lot of “armies” lying around waiting to rescue missionaries and Indians. Do you know any history?
Sneak into their camp? One man, when they were a large war party and with pretty impressive fighting skills? The Mohawks and Hurons were all larger and stronger than the Europeans, as the French noted many times.
He surrendered because his friends were being tortured and he wanted to encourage them.
He heard their confessions. He prayed with them. He sang songs to encourage them in their captivity. He gave them his example.
He also wanted to impress the Mohawk with his bravery and example. They were impressed, I assure you.
I think it is Sad that you think his example was pathetic.
I hope you are never by my side to help me when I am in trouble, because it sounds like you’ll run away unless you feel powerful.
But he didn’t help them. He didn’t even try. He didn’t even fight. He submitted to torture.
He didn’t go and recruit friendly Indian tribes to help.
You can insult me all you want, but I wouldn’t leave friends to be tortured by signing up to suffer their fate. If I were one of those captured I certainly wouldn’t want those who escaped to also be captured. What kind of monster thinks that way. But if someone escaped and could have tried to do something, anything to try and help, even if he failed, I would be very grateful.
Land if the idiot instead took the lazy and gutless and thoughtless act of joining me in my torture, I would be extremely angry.
Lazy and gutless?
And you think that I insulted you?
His Huron brothers did not think he was lazy or gutless.
The Mohawk did not think he was lazy or gutless.
The Dutch who tried to rescue him did not think he was lazy or gutless.
I have zero respect for the lazy judgement that you, sitting in your comfortable 21st century prosperity, complacently bestow.
No, instead you would run away and leave them alone to their fate.
There are worse fates than torture and death.
MT, I know this is deep in your heart, but the last thing Pere Isaac and Pere Jean and their companions would want is this increasingly-acrimonious exchange. Skyler has put himself at the country’s service – as a Marine, iirc – so your remark in #23 seems a bit misplaced. Peace be with you and thanks, again, for this moving post.
Then perhaps I can gently remind of him the heroic chaplains like Vincent Capodanno who did not leave their men.
Maybe if he realizes that Pere Isaac is a priest whose calling is to minister to the souls in his care, he will understand why Pere Isaac needed to stand up and stay with his brothers.
MT, Skyler may find camaraderie with my battle-buddy, Fr. C., sneaking aboard helos to be in the midst of the fight – in order to minister, grant you – but Pere Isaac’s forward looking to a life beyond death may seem a tad too close to the “We love death more than you love life.” view for his taste. (@skyler, please don’t let me speak inaccurately about you, or for you, here.) A case of seeing the ame thing through different lenses, it seems.
Nanda spoke perfectly on my behalf.
Pere Isaac’s own words: