A Supreme Holocaust
Hurons becoming Christian—Example of devotion—Iroquois implacable—Daniel their victim, Martyr of Charity—Acts of the Martyrs—Brebeuf and Lalemant—An orgy of cruelties.
The martyrdom of Jogues sealed the doom of the Hurons. Their only hope of peace was his success as missionary among their fierce enemies, the Iroquois. That would lead them to give up their habit of warfare and let the villagers to the north live quietly and prosper. No doubt Jogues was happy to throw himself into the breach with the hope of saving his beloved Huronia. It would appear, however, from a letter he wrote at the time to a Jesuit friend, Castillon in France, that he had a presentiment of what was to happen to him.
"My heart tells me that, if I have the blessing of being employed in this mission, 'I go not to return'; but I would be happy if Our Lord were willing to finish the sacrifice where He has begun it, and if the little blood which I have shed in that land were as the pledge of that which I would give him from all the veins of my body and my heart. In fine, that people 'is espoused to me in blood: I have espoused it in my blood'. Our Good Master Who has acquired it by His blood, opens to it, if He pleases, the door of His Gospel,—as also to four other nations, its allies, who are near to it. Adieu, my dear Father; entreat Him that He unite me inseparably to Himself."(89)
Since Jogues' departure from the Hurons in 1642, they began to embrace the Faith in increasing numbers. The number of missionaries employed and needed amongst them was now twenty-four. Daniel had returned in 1639, his seminary at Quebec for young Indian boys having proved a failure because the parents, who were still pagan, could not bear separation from their children for the sake of religious training which they could not appreciate. After a year at Ossossane, he spent eight years at St. John Baptist and the last year of his life at the second village of St. Joseph. Every "Relation" at this time reports not only a growth in Christianity, but remarkable instances of constancy and of singular virtue on the part of the new converts. Thus, when Brebeuf writes to his General in Rome, September 23, 1643, about the capture and torture of Jogues, he adds:
"From these things it is evident in what a very evil condition Canadian affairs are placed; but, on another side, these unhappy afflictions are by so much richer in heavenly gifts, as they are more lamentable. Not vice rules here, but virtue and piety; not only among ours, who everywhere show themselves men, and true sons of the Society; but also among our French and among the barbarians, — nor alone in the case of those barbarians who have already enrolled their names for the Faith, but also in the case of others who do not yet profess the Faith. For they scarcely practise their former superstitions; and we might hope, if we now enjoyed peace, to bring all, in a short time, to the Faith. . . ."(90)
Vimont soon after the capture of Jogues writes:
"As for our missions in the villages of the Hurons, we have continued them as usual. We were never so fortunate, nor ever so unfortunate — the capture of Father Jogues, of our Frenchmen, of our Christian Hurons, and of our catechumens, makes us realize our troubles; and what has occurred this year for the enlargement of the Faith publishes in the 'Relation' our blessedness. We are entering more and more into the possession of the goods which we come to buy in this end of the world at the price of our blood and of our lives: I see stronger tendencies than ever toward the total conversion of these peoples, whom we are attacking among the first, and whom we are undertaking to carry away, in order to serve as models and as examples to those who shall be subsequently converted. In a word, our little churches are continually increasing in number of persons, and in virtue; the affairs of Our Lord advance in proportion to the adversities which He sends us.
Hardly could one find, hitherto, among our Christians two or three warriors; but, since the capture of that worthy neophyte, named Eustache, the most valiant of all the Hurons, we have counted in a single band as many as twenty-two believers,—all men of courage, and mostly captains or people of importance."(91)
Lalemant gives this description of one of the captains converted in the mission where Gamier and Le Moyne were at work:
"Father Charles Garnier and Father Simon Le Moyne have had charge of this mission. The number of Christians in it has increased in a marked degree. Among those who have received holy baptism, were three captains who are persons of consideration. The first is named Thomas Sondakwa. Some years ago he had already a desire to become a Christian; he never felt anything but love for us, and for the things of the Faith, and has always lived in a state of moral innocence and of goodness that made him loved by all. But as he saw that there was ill will against the Christians, and, moreover, as his office compelled him to uphold the superstitions of his country, which constitute the greater portion of their councils, his courage was not strong enough to choose altogether what he only partly desired. After the death of a friend of his, who was a Christian, and of whom I have spoken in one of the earlier chapters, God touched his heart more deeply. He commenced to receive instruction, he took pleasure in heavenly things, and resolved publicly to embrace the Faith. There-upon the Devil frightens him in dreams. Sometimes he sees before his eyes a captain, who had been one of his old friends, who comes back from the other world, and reproaches him with his want of affection in seeking thus to separate himself forever from all those who had such affection for him. On another occasion, he sees one whose face he does not know, who puts in his mouth a morsel that is to make him very fortunate; and indeed, on awakening, he finds something on his tongue that he cannot recognize, and that an infidel Huron would have considered as a sign of good fortune, and would have preserved as a gift from some familiar demon. For it is thus that the demons manifest themselves in these countries, under assumed shapes,— sometimes an owl's claw, sometimes the skin of a hideous serpent, or similar things, that bring with them good luck in fishing and hunting, in trading and gambling. Some of them are even used as philters to attract love,
"Our catechumen was already too far advanced in the sentiments of the Faith to be frightened by such threats, or to yield to the Devil's promises. He renounces all such hellish intercourse; he has recourse to God; and after his baptism all these phantoms disappear. He at once makes a public profession of faith, refuses to attend the councils when anything forbidden by the laws of God is to be discussed, and wishes the entire country to know that he prefers the duty of a Christian to anything else. And the best part of all is, that in all this,— although he has manifested a truly heroic courage, by trampling on all human considerations, which prevail here not less than in France,— he nevertheless acts with such loving gentleness that those who are most hostile to the Faith can find nothing to blame in him. For this reason, this virtue of mildness is dear to his heart as the most powerful means of winning the infidels to Jesus Christ."(92)
In fact, the Hurons were gradually becoming Catholics, and as Brebeuf remarks, with a period of peace, the whole people would have been converted. The Iroquois, however, were unremitting in their hostilities to their former tribal associates. No longer content with attacking stray bands of Hurons on the trail, they began to enter and pillage their towns, sparing no one, neither women nor children. As early as 1642 they had destroyed a village on the outskirt, Kontarea. Their next attack was on the village of St. John Baptist and on July 4, 1648, they appeared at Teanaustaye just as Daniel had finished celebrating Mass. As Ragueneau narrates:
"Hardly had the Father ended Mass, and the Christians — who, according to their custom, had filled the church after the rising of the sun — were still continuing their devotions there, when the cry arose, 'To arms, and repel the enemy!'— who, having come unexpectedly, had made his approaches by night. Some hasten to the combat, others to flight: there is naught but alarm and terror everywhere. The Father, among the first to rush where he sees the danger greatest, encourages his people to a brave defense; and—as if he had seen paradise open for the Christians, and hell on the point of swallowing up all the infidels — he speaks to them in a tone so animated with the spirit which was possessing him, that, having made a breach in hearts which till then had been most rebellious, he gave them a Christian heart. The number of these proved to be so great that, unable to cope with it by baptizing them one after the other, he was constrained to dip his handkerchief in the water (which was all that necessity then offered him), in order to shed abroad as quickly as possible this grace on those poor savages, who cried mercy to him,— using the manner of baptizing which is called 'by aspersion'.
"Meanwhile, the enemy continued his attacks more furiously than ever; and, without doubt, it was a great blessing for the salvation of some that, at the moment of their death, baptism had given them the life of the soul, and put them in possession of an immortal life. When the Father saw that the Iroquois were becoming masters of the place, he,— instead of taking flight with those who were inviting him to escape in their company,— forgetting himself, remembered some old men and sick people, whom he had long ago prepared for baptism. He goes through the cabins, and proceeds to fill them with his zeal,— the infidels themselves presenting their children in crowds, in order to make Christians of them. Meanwhile the enemy, already victorious, had set everything on fire, and the blood of even the women and children irritated their fury. The Father, wishing to die in his church, finds it full of Christians, and of catechumens who ask him for baptism. It was indeed at that time that their faith animated their prayers, and that their hearts could not belie their tongues. He baptizes some, gives absolution to others, and consoles them all with the sweetest hope of the saints,— having hardly other words on his lips than these: 'My brothers, today we shall be in heaven.'
"The enemy was warned that the Christians had betaken themselves, in very large number, into the Church, and that it was the easiest and the richest prey that he could have hoped for; he hastens thither, with barbarous howls and stunning yells. At the noise of these approaches, 'Flee, my brothers,' said the Father to his new Christians, 'and bear with you your Faith even to the last sigh. As for me' (he added), 'I must face death here, as long as I shall see here any soul to be gained for Heaven; and, dying here to save you, my life is no longer anything to me; we shall see one another again in heaven.' At the same time, he goes out in the direction whence come the enemy, who stop in astonishment to see one man alone come to meet them, and even recoil backward, as if he bore upon his face the terrible and frightful appearance of a whole company. Finally,— having come to their senses a little, and being astonished at themselves, — they incite one another; they surround him on all sides, and cover him with arrows, until, having inflicted upon him a mortal wound from an arquebus shot,— which pierced him through and through, in the very middle of his breast,— he fell. Pronouncing the name of Jesus, he blessedly yielded up his soul to God,— truly as a good pastor, who exposes both his soul and his life for the salvation of his flock. It was then that those barbarians rushed upon him with as much rage as if he alone had been the object of their hatred. They strip him naked, they exercise upon him a thousand indignities; and there was hardly anyone who did not try to assume the glory of having given him the final blow, even on seeing him dead. The fire meanwhile was consuming the cabins; and when it had spread as far as the church, the Father was cast into it, at the height of the flames, which soon made of him a whole burnt-offering. Be this as it may, he could not have been more gloriously consumed than in the fires and lights of a Chapelle ardente."(93)
Ragueneau is the narrator of Daniel's martyrdom. He had every means of ascertaining the facts from those who witnessed them. Now that the era of martyrdom was in progress, the greatest care was taken to record in minute detail what each one suffered and in what dispositions he met death. Ragueneau's account of this is a veritable "Acts of the Martyrs." No one could know better than the missionary that the Iroquois were determined to exterminate the Hurons.
Every priest on that mission knew what fate was awaiting him. The government at Quebec was powerless to protect its Huron wards. The certainty of death for the natives and for themselves only made the missionaries cling more devotedly to their posts. They would die one and all of them if need be, ministering salvation to the Christian Indians as true shepherds standing by their flocks.
Within a year, on March 16, 1649, the Iroquois attacked the village at which Brebeuf and Lalemant were stationed. They perpetrated unspeakable horrors upon the inhabitants, and their torture of the two missionaries was as atrocious as anything recorded in history. Ragueneau writes the following account of their martyrdom to Jerome Lalemant, then Superior at Quebec, in his "Relation of 1648-49":
"As early as the next morning, when we had assurance of the departure of the enemy,— having had, before that, certain news, through some escaped captives, of the deaths of Father Jean de Brebeuf and of Father Gabriel Lalemant,— we sent one of our Fathers and seven other Frenchmen to seek their bodies at the place of their torture. They found there a spectacle of horror,— the remains of cruelty itself; or rather the relics of the love of God, which alone triumphs in the death of martyrs. I would gladly call them if I were allowed, by that glorious name, not only because voluntarily, for the love of God and for the salvation of their neighbor, they exposed themselves to death, and to a cruel death, if ever there was one in the world,— for they could easily and without sin have put their lives in safety, if they had not been filled with love for God rather than for themselves. But much rather would I thus call them, because, in addition to the charitable dispositions which they have manifested on their side, hatred for the Faith and contempt for the name of God have been among the most powerful incentives which have influenced the mind of the barbarians to practise upon them as many cruelties as ever the rage of tyrants obliged the martyrs to endure, who, at the climax of their tortures, have triumphed over both life and death. As soon as they were taken captive, they were stripped naked, and some of their nails were torn out; and the welcome which they received upon entering the village of St. Ignace was a hailstorm of blows with sticks upon their shoulders, their loins, their legs, their breasts, their bellies, and their faces,— there being no part of their bodies which did not then endure its torment. Father Jean de Brebeuf, overwhelmed under the burden of these blows, did not on that account lose care for his flock; seeing himself surrounded with Christians whom he had instructed, and who were in captivity with him, he said to them: 'My children, let us lift our eyes to heaven at the height of our afflictions; let us remember that God is the witness of our sufferings, and will soon be our exceeding great reward. Let us die in this faith; and let us hope from His goodness the fulfilment of His promises. I have more pity for you than for myself; but sustain with courage the few remaining torments. They will end with our lives; the glory which follows then will never have an end.' 'Echon', they said to him (this is the name which the Hurons gave the Father), 'our spirits will be in heaven when our bodies shall be suffering on earth. Pray to God for us, that He may show us mercy; we will invoke Him even until death.' Some Huron infidels — former captives of the Iroquois, naturalized among them, and former enemies of the Faith — were irritated by these words, and because our Fathers in their captivity had not their tongues captive. They cut off the hands of one, and pierced the other with sharp awls and iron points; they apply under their armpits and upon their loins hatchets heated red in the fire, and put a necklace of these about their necks in such a way that all the motions of their bodies gave them a new torture. For, if they attempted to lean forward, the red-hot hatchets which hung behind them burned the shoulders everywhere; and if they thought to avoid that pain, bending back a little, their stomachs and breasts experienced a similar torment; if they stood upright, without leaning to one side or the other, these glowing hatchets, touching them alike on all sides, were a double torture to them. They put about them belts of bark, filled with pitch and resin, to which they set fire, which scorched the whole of their bodies. At the height of these torments Father Gabriel Lalemant lifted his eyes to heaven, clasping his hands from time to time, and uttering sighs to God, Whom he invoked to his aid. Father Jean de Brebeuf suffered like a rock, insensible to the fires and the flames, without uttering any cry, and keeping a profound silence, which astonished his executioners themselves; no doubt, his heart was then reposing in his God. Then, returning to himself, he preached to those infidels, and still more to many good Christian captives, who had compassion on him. Those butchers, indignant at his zeal, in order to hinder him from further speaking of God, girdled his mouth, cut off his nose, and tore off his lips; but his blood spoke much more loudly than his lips had done; and, his heart not being yet torn out, his tongue did not fail to render him service until the last sigh, for blessing God for these torments, and for animating the Christians more vigorously than he had ever done.
"In derision of holy baptism,— which these good Fathers had so charitably administered even at the breach, and in the hottest of the fight,— those wretches, enemies of the Faith, bethought themselves to baptize them with boiling water. Their bodies were entirely bathed with it, two or three times, and more, with biting gibes, which accompanied these torments, 'We baptize thee', said these wretches, 'to the end that thou mayst be blessed in heaven; for without proper baptism one cannot be saved.' Others added, mocking, 'We treat thee as a friend, since we shall be the cause of thy greatest happiness up in heaven; thank us for so many good offices,—for, the more thou suffer-est, the more thy God will reward thee.'
"These were infidel Hurons, former captives of the Iroquois, and, of old, enemies of the Faith,— who having previously had sufficient instruction for their salvation, impiously abused it,— in reality, for the glory of the Fathers; but it is much to be feared that it was also for their own misfortune. The more these torments were augmented, the more the Fathers entreated God that their sins should not be the cause of the reprobation of these poor blind ones, whom they pardoned with all their heart. It is surely now that they say in repose, 'we have passed through fire and water, but Thou hast led us into a place of refreshment.' When they were fastened to the post where they suffered these torments, and where they were to die, they knelt down, they embraced it with joy, and kissed it piously as the object of their desires and their love, the breach, and in the hottest of the fight,— those wretches, enemies of the Faith, bethought themselves to baptize them with boiling water. Their bodies were entirely bathed with it, two or three times, and more, with biting gibes, which accompanied these torments. 'We baptize thee', said these wretches, 'to the end that thou mayst be blessed in heaven; for without proper baptism one cannot be saved.' Others added, mocking, 'We treat thee as a friend, since we shall be the cause of thy greatest happiness up in heaven; thank us for so many good offices,—for, the more thou suffer-est, the more thy God will reward thee.'
"These were infidel Hurons, former captives of the Iroquois, and, of old, enemies of the Faith,— who having previously had sufficient instruction for their salvation, impiously abused it,— in reality, for the glory of the Fathers; but it is much to be feared that it was also for their own misfortune. The more these torments were augmented, the more the Fathers entreated God that their sins should not be the cause of the reprobation of these poor blind ones, whom they pardoned with all their heart. It is surely now that they say in repose, 'we have passed through fire and water, but Thou hast led us into a place of refreshment.' When they were fastened to the post where they suffered these torments, and where they were to die, they knelt down, they embraced it with joy, and kissed it piously as the object of their desires and their love, and as a sure and final pledge of their salvation. They were there some time in prayers, and longer than those butchers were willing to permit them. They put out Father Gabriel Lalemant's eyes and applied burning coals in the hollows of the same. Their tortures were not of the same duration. Father Jean de Brebeuf was at the height of his torments at about three o'clock on the same day of the capture, the 16th day of March, and rendered up his soul about four o'clock in the evening. Father Gabriel Lalemant endured longer, from six o'clock in the evening until about nine o'clock the next morning, the 17th of March.
"Before their death, both their hearts were torn out, by means of an opening above the breast; and those barbarians inhumanly feasted thereon, drinking their blood quite warm, which they drew from its source with sacrilegious hands. While still quite full of life, pieces of flesh were removed from their thighs, from the calves of the legs, and from their arms,— which those executioners placed on coals to roast, and ate in their sight. They had slashed their bodies in various parts; and, in order to increase the feeling of pain, they had thrust into these wounds red hot hatchets. Father Jean de Brebeuf had had the skin which covered his skull torn away; they had cut off his feet and torn the flesh from his thighs, even to the bone, and had split, with the blow of a hatchet, one of his jaws in two. Father Gabriel Lalemant had received a hatchet-blow on the left ear, which they had driven into his brain, which appeared exposed; we saw no part of his body, from the feet even to the head, which had not been broiled, and in which he had not been burned alive,— even the eyes, into which those impious ones had thrust burning coals. They had broiled their tongues, repeatedly putting into their mouths flaming brands, and burning pieces of bark,— not willing that they should invoke, in dying, Him for whom they were suffering, and Who could never die in their hearts. I have learned all this from persons worthy of credence, who have seen it, and reported it to me personally, and who were then captives with them,— but who, having been reserved to be put to death at another time, found means to escape. But let us leave these objects of horror, and these monsters of cruelty; since one day all those parts will be endowed with an immortal glory, the greatness of their torments will be the measure of their happiness, and, from now on, they live in the repose of the saints, and will dwell in it forever.
"We buried these precious relics on Sunday, the 21st day of March, with so much consolation and such tender feeling of devotion in all those who were present at their obsequies, that I know none who did not desire a similar death, rather than fear it; and who did not regard himself as blest to stand in a place where, it might be, two days thence, God would accord him the grace of shedding both his blood and his life on a like occasion. Not one of us could ever prevail upon himself to pray to God for them, as if they had had any need of it; but our spirits were at once directed toward heaven, where we doubted not that their souls were. Be this as it may, I entreat God that He fulfil upon us His will, even to death, as He has done in their persons