Scripture Readings

• First Reading: 2 Cor 4:7-15

• Responsorial Psalm: Ps 126 (125):1bc-2ab. 2cd-3, 4-5, 6

• Alleluia Verse: Matt 28:19a+20b

• Gospel: Matt 28:16-20

 Reflection on Today’s Feast

By Fr. Paul Sullivan, SJ

The North American Martyrs become family to me.

I expect that my first real interest in the North American Martyrs (also known as the Jesuit Martyrs, or in Canada, the Canadian Martyrs) began when I was a scholastic and assigned to Cheverus High School here in Portland, Maine for my regency years. What was then the Jesuit Community Chapel and is now a Chapel for the school has two stained glass walls flanking the sanctuary. The subject of one of those walls is the Martyrs, so I would see them virtually every day.

The next step closer came years later when I became pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Eastport, in far downeast Maine. Eastport is located five miles from Pleasant Point, one of the two reservations of the Passamaquoddy people, “people of the dawn” and members of the Abenaki tribe, indigenous people of Maine. I came to know the Passamaquoddy and learned about their culture and religious history. The earliest roots of Catholicism in Maine lie with the Passamaquoddy in downeast Maine and the Penobscots along the Kennebec River in the State’s interior. French Jesuits were active in Maine in the same period as those in Canada. The first recorded Mass in New England was celebrated by Fr. Pierre Biard, SJ in Maine in 1611, and in 1613 the first Jesuit, Brother Du Thet, was killed in New England and buried on Mt. Desert Island. The history of the Church in Maine was part of this early Jesuit work. In some sense, then, I could feel that I was helping to tend the flame first lit by the Martyrs and their fellow Jesuits in this part of the world.

In the calendar of the Church and the Society the Martyrs’ memorial is usually listed as that of “Isaac Jogues and Companions.” I would make the point of including the names of those Companions at Mass on Oct 19th: Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, Anthony (or Antoine) Daniel, Gabriel Lallemant, Charles Garnier, Noel Chabanel, all priests, and Rene Goupil who took first vows while here on the mission and John de La Lande, who was a lay volunteer, a “donne.”

Some 50 years after the martyrs another French Jesuit, Fr. Sebastian Rasle, was assigned to work with the Natives in what had become a contested border region between the French in Canada and the English/Americans in New England. For years Rasle lived and worked with the Penobscot people along the upper Kennebec River in Maine. The English and Americans targeted him and put a bounty on his head. His Jesuit Provincial urged him to leave this border area to safeguard his life. Rasle refused to go. On Aug 23, 1724, he and seven Native Chiefs were killed by English/American forces, and the Native church and village at Norridgewock were burned. His case has been studied by Fr. Vincent Lapomarda, SJ, emeritus professor of history at The College of the Holy Cross and others, and there is good reason to believe that Rasle, too, should be recognized by the Church as a martyr of witness, courage and faith.

During the past few years I have become interested in my family genealogical history and have explored it using online resources. This has led to the final and closest tie to the Martyrs. Although I have an Irish surname, in addition to that Irish heritage, I have a good deal of French blood on both sides of my family. Following my maternal grandfather’s line I discovered a possible connection with St. Anthony (Antoine) Daniel, SJ, who came to New France as a young man and established what is called the first school in North America. He was martyred on July 4, 1648 in Canada. I hope to find a conclusive family link.

And there is another proven, close link. In the same family line my 9th great grandfather is Guilllaume Couture, born 1617 in Rouen, France – died 1701 in Quebec City. He was a donne to the Jesuits and worked closely with Joques and Goupil and may have been recruited by Goupil who was a donne himself. In 1642 Couture, Joques, Goupil and others were attacked by a large group of Iroquois. Goupil was killed at this time. Jogues escaped, only to die later. Couture was tortured by the Iroquois, and we have Joques’ description of Couture’s sufferings.

Jogues wrote:

“The last one to be dragged in from flight was Guillaume Couture, who had set out from the Hurons with me.” Couture was initially able to flee from the scene but as Jogues writes, Couture, “seeing that I was not with him.. [and] returning along the path by which he had fled...was taken prisoner of his own accord….such is the quality of those men who, although laymen, put aside all worldly interest and devote themselves completely to the Hurons for God and the Society. One could never imagine the horrible types and the severity of the torments to which this man was subjected….Despite the intense agony he suffered from all these tortures, he told me later that the remembrance of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ had fortified him and even brought him great joy.”

Jogues escaped that day. Couture remained with the Iroquois for about three years and then returned to the French settlements. He later left his position working with the Jesuits and married. He is the progenitor of all the Coutures and related families of North America, including me.

From admiration and shared bond as Jesuits, to a sense of continuing the work they had started, to discovering a close personal connection and possibly even a relationship of blood, my journey has brought me closer to these pioneers of the Church in North America.

Jesuit Martyrs of North America, pray for us!

Fr. Paul Sullivan, SJ, serves as the pastor of Our Lady of Hope Parish in Portland, Maine