St. Rene Goupil (1642), Jesuit brother: St. Isaac Jogues (1646), Jesuit priest: and St. John Lalande (1646), lay missioner: St. Jean de Brébreuf (1649), Jesuit priest: and four others.

Upstate New York in late September, with its rolling plains of story book farms, was a long way from my hometown of Ventura in southern California, where I first read about the North American Martyrs. It did not disappoint. In fact, the beauty of the place still showed some of its original state, when it could only be traversed by canoe. As I walked in the ravine, the peace was at great odds with the torture and murders that occurred there. Then again it was also the birthplace of Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha.

The French had been allied with the Hurons. The Jesuit missionaries and some of their Huron converts had been captured by the Huron’s enemies, the Mohawk Iroquois. Their suffering and eventual death revealed an amazing courage, but what kind of courage did it take to leave France for such a dangerous mission?

St. Isaac Jogues and his companions did not come to seek their fortune in the New World. They heard a call and came. We are all different because they answered that call.