Isaac Jogues

Saint Isaac Jogues
Statue of Saint Isaac Jogues, shown teaching two Mohawk Indian children
Martyr
Born	January 15, 1607(1607-01-15) Slough
Died	October 18, 1646(1646-10-18) (aged 39) Auriesville, New York
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	June 21, 1925, Rome, Italy by Pope Pius XI
Canonized	June 29, 1930, Rome, Italy by Pope Pius XI
Major shrine	National Shrine of the North American Martyrs, Auriesville, New York, USA (where he was martyred)
Feast	September 26 (Canada), October 19 (General calendar)

Isaac Jogues (January 10, 1607 – October 18, 1646) was a Jesuit priest, missionary, and martyr who traveled and worked among the native populations in North America. He gave the original European name to Lake George, calling it Lac du Saint Sacrement, Lake of the Blessed Sacrament. In 1646, Jogues was martyred by the Mohawks near present day Auriesville, New York. Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf and six other martyred missionaries, all Jesuits or laymen associated with them, were canonized in 1930, and are known as "The North American Martyrs" or "St. Isaac Jogues and Companions". Their feast day is October 19, except in Canada, where the feast is celebrated on September 26.

Life

St. Isaac Jogues was born in Orléans, France, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1624. In 1636, he was sent to New France as a missionary to the Huron and Algonquian allies of the French. In 1642, while on his way by canoe to the country of the Hurons, Jogues was captured by a war party of Mohawk Iroquois, in the company of Guillaume Cousture, René Goupil, and several Huron Christians. They were taken back to the Mohawk village where they were gruesomely tortured. It was during this torture that several of Jogues' fingers were cut off by his captors.

St. Isaac Jogues survived this torment and went on to live as a slave among the Mohawks for some time, even attempting to teach his captors the rudiments of Christianity. He was finally able to escape thanks to the pity of some Dutch merchants who smuggled him back to Manhattan. From there, he managed to sail back to France, where he was greeted with surprise and joy. As a "living martyr", Jogues was given a special permission by Pope Urban VIII to say Holy Mass with his mutilated hands, as the Eucharist could not be touched with any fingers but the thumb and forefinger.

Yet his ill-treatment by the Mohawk Iroqois did not dim the missionary zeal of Jogues. Within a few months, he was on his way back to Canada to continue his work. In 1645, a tentative peace was forged between the Iroquois and the Hurons, Algonquins, and French. In the spring of 1646, Jogues was sent back to the Mohawk country along with Jean de Lalande to act as ambassador among them.

However, some among the Mohawks regarded Jogues as a practitioner of magic, and when the double-calamity of sickness and crop failure hit the Mohawks, Jogues was the easiest thing to blame their now prevalent problems on. On October 18, 1646, Jogues and LaLande were tomahawked in the head (not clubbed as some tell the story).

Mosaic of St. Isaac Jogues in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

North American Martyrs

Today, the Shrine of the North American Martyrs, maintained by the Jesuits, stands on or near the site (ten years after Jogues' death, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha was born in approximately the same place). Brébeuf and five of his companions were killed in Canada in 1648 and 1649. The Mohawk Indians killed him but first stripped him naked and beat him.

He was canonized on June 29, 1930 by Pope Pius XI along with seven other Canadian Martyrs. His Day of Remembrance is October 19. A statue of Father Jogues stands in the village of Lake George, in a park by the lake.

At Fordham University's Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx, New York, a freshman dormitory—Martyrs' Court—has three sections, which are named for the three U.S. martyr-saints: Isaac Jogues, René Goupil, and John LaLande. Dormitories at LeMoyne College in Syracuse and at Fairfield University in Connecticut are also named for Jogues.

The novitiate of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus just outside Wernersville, Pennsylvania was named for Jogues. It is now called the Jesuit Center at Wernersville, PA. [1]

See also

• Blessed Julian Maunoir
• Roman Catholicism in the United States#American Catholic Servants of God, Venerables, Beatified, and Saints

References

• The Captivity of St. Isaac Jogues. Bristol, PA: Arx Publishing. 2003. ISBN 1-889758-52-3. 
• Francis W. Halsey: Jesuits and Church of England Men
• Francis Parkman, The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, vol. 2 of France and England in North America (1867).
• Lomask, Milton (1956). Saint Isaac and the Indians. San Diego: Ignatius Press. ISBN 978-0-89870-355-9. 
• Talbot, S.J., Francis (1935). Saint Among Savages: The Life of Saint Isaac Jogues. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. ISBN 0-89870-913-x. 

External links

• Biography at the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Saint Among Savages - The Life of Saint Isaac Jogues
• Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs. National Shrine of North American Martyrs. Auriesville, New York

Stages of canonization in the Catholic Church
Servant of God   →   Venerable   →   Blessed   →   Saint