Among the members of the Society of Jesus who brought most renown to the infant church in North America in the middle of the seventeenth century. God chose as victims eight men of outstanding integrity, that from the seeds of faith watered with their blood there might spring up a more abundant harvest.

All these Martyrs--six priests and two laymen--natives of France, were sent by their Superiors to the Missions in Canada, at that time known as New France. With Quebec as a center they made numberless missionary journeys to the various sectors of this vast territory, laboring there amidst the greatest hardships. In the end all were most cruelly put to death and for the same reason, their faith, although not at the same time and place. John de Brebeuf, born at Conde-sur-Vire, in the diocese of Bajon (now Constance), of an illustrious family, and Isaac Jogues, born in Orleans, are regarded as their leaders and masters and rightly so. For they were valiant men, fired with apostolic zeal, living most mortified lives, in intimate prayerful union with God, and at times were honored with heavenly visions.

Not unlike them were their four companion priests: Anthony Daniel, born at Dieppe, Gabriel Lalemant and Charles Gamier, both Parisian born, and Noel Chabanel, a native of Mende; all of these faithfully fulfilled their priestly functions, laboring principally in various villages of the Huron country.

Frequent raids by the Iroquois, a hostile neighboring tribe, often wrought havoc in the Huron missions and seriously endangered the lives of the Fathers in charge of them. In 1642, on a journey from Quebec to the Huron country, Isaac Jogues together with Rene Goupil, a lay coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, fell in with the Iroquois who held him and his companion as slaves, and subjected them to most horrible torments. In the same year on the 29th of September, Rene was killed by order of an old savage, out of hatred for the cross of salvation. It was near Auriesville in the present State of New York where this most sincere man breathed forth his soul to God. In the following year Isaac managed to escape and made his way back to France. He returned to America after another year and along with John Lalande who was also a coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, made a second and third journey to the savages, his erstwhile tormentors.

On October 18, 1646, in the present diocese of Albany, Isaac was struck with a tomahawk and thus obtained the palm of martyrdom. The following day his companion, John, meeting with a like fate, took his flight to heaven, to be rewarded with the same crown of martyrdom.

On July 4, 1648, in an attack upon the village of St. Joseph by the Iroquois, Anthony Daniel, in charge of the Huron mission there, was slain while fearlessly defending his flock. Overwhelmed by a shower of arrows and bullets at the entrance of the church, like a good shepherd he laid down his life for his sheep. Within a year, on March 16, 1649, at St. Ignace, a village situated in what is now the province of Ontario, Canada, John de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were captured by the Iroquois. That same day, Brebeuf, rightly called the Apostle of the Hurons, died a glorious death, after undergoing long drawn-out tortures of the most atrocious description during which this gallant soldier of Christ manifested such fortitude as to excite even the admiration of the savages themselves. On the following day Gabriel Lalemant suffered the same cruel martyrdom, during which he showed the same heroic virtue.

In December of the same year, 1649, on the eve of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Charles Garnier, after several bullet Wounds was killed by a blow from a hatchet, thereby adding a glorious crown to a life of exceptional innocence. On the following day Noel Chabanel became the victim of the treachery of a Huron apostate who killed him and threw his body into a river. His longing for the palm of martyrdom was thus realized in his own beloved mission. Although he felt a natural repugnance for this work among the savages, hero that he was, he bound himself by a vow to remain in this mission until death. These eight martyrs, the first in North America, were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and were canonized by the same Pontiff five years later.

O God, Who by the preaching and blood of Thy sainted martyrs, Isaac and John and their companions, didst consecrate the first fruits of the faith in the vast regions of North America, graciously grant that, by their intercession, the flourishing harvest of the Christians may everywhere and always be increased. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Saint Isaac Jogues! By thy preaching and by thy blood, the eternal Word did consecrate the first-fruits of the faith in the vast regions of North America. Pray for us, O martyr of Christ, that by the example of our lives, we may bring others to follow Christ and so assist in increasing the harvest of souls, sown by thee in America. Amen.