St. Isaac Jogues, S.J.

(1607-1646)

Isaac Jogues became well known in France when he returned after escaping from slavery among the Mohawks in Canada with his hands badly mutilated from torture. Despite his sufferings, he returned to the missions where he was eventually martyred.

Jogues was born in Orleans, France on Jan. 10, 1607
and entered the Jesuits at Rouen when he was 17 years old.

Two months after celebrating his first Mass Feb. 10, 1636, he was on his way to the Jesuit mission in New France.

He wrote his mother of his great joy when he landed in Quebec and saw native Americans waiting on shore. After only a month and a half, he set out on his first mission to the Hurons, traveling the 900 miles to Ihonatiria by water.

Jogues met his hero, Father John de Brébeuf,
and began learning the Huron language.

The first problem arose when a smallpox epidemic broke out in the settlement and people blamed the missionaries for bringing the disease.

The settlement was abandoned and Jogues moved to Sainte-Marie, a thriving enterprise where missionaries had taught people how to cultivate the land and raise cattle, pigs and fowl.

In June Jogues accompanied a group of Hurons back to Three Rivers, near Quebec, for supplies.
The voyage was hazardous because the Iroquois were at war with the French.

Jogues tried to get more Jesuit priests for the mission, but none were available. The provincial suggested he take René Goupil,
a layman who was a surgeon
and had promised to work with the Jesuits, remain celibate and obey the Jesuit superior.
Jogues, Goupil and the Hurons set out but were attacked one day into the voyage by a war party of 70 Mohawks.

The Mohawks tortured Jogues by partly mutilating his fingers.
Goupil asked Jogues to accept him into the Society of Jesus as a brother,
given the peril they faced,
and Jogues accepted his vows en route.

The Mohawks headed back to their home village
Finally on August 14 the flotilla arrived at Ossernenon (which today is Auriesville, New York) on the bank of the Mohawk River.

The prisoners endured the torture of running the gauntlet between two lines of warriors who beat the captives as they staggered by.

Jogues and Goupil had to endure other torments; a woman cut off Jogues' thumb.

Then the two Frenchmen became slaves of the chief who had captured them.

Goupil was killed on Sept. 29, 1642 when someone saw him make the sign of the cross over a child,

Eventually he made his way to New York and then back to Europe.

He landed in France and his Jesuit brothers received him as a hero.

Jogues' only regret was his inability to celebrate Mass because of his mutilated hands: on the left hand the index finger was nothing but a stub and the thumb was missing while the thumb and index finger of the right hand were badly disfigured.
He was unable to hold the host correctly, but Pope Urban VIII granted him a dispensation to celebrate Mass.

Jogues visited his mother in Orléans but was eager to return to the missions so he set sail in May, arriving in time to attend the peace conference between the French and the Indians representing the Iroquois federation.

Meanwhile, the Mohawks in Ossernenon had suffered a crop failure and an epidemic, blaming it on the chest of vestments and books that the Jesuits had left behind
 Warriors set out in search of some Frenchman to kill and were delighted when on October 17 they captured Jogues and his two companions.

The captives were stripped naked and beaten on their way back to Ossernenon
where people cut strips of flesh from the neck and arms of the Jesuit.  

The next day Jogues was struck down with a tomahawk as he entered a lodge.
Another Jesuit, Le Lande, tried to slip out at night and was immediately killed by some warriors who were waiting to ambush him.

The bodies of the two Frenchmen were thrown into the river while their heads were exposed on the palisades protecting the village.
Isaac Jogues was canonized by Pope Pius XI on June 29, 1930,
with seven other North American martyrs. Their collective feast day is October 19.