Jean de Brébeuf
S.J. | |
---|---|
Martyr Apostle of the Hurons | |
Born | Condé-sur-Vire, Normandy, France | 25 March 1593
Died | 16 March 1649 Huron village of St. Ignace, near Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, near Midland, Ontario, Canada | (aged 55)
Venerated in | Catholic Church, Anglican Communion |
Beatified | 12 June 1925 |
Canonized | 29 June 1930, Canada, by Pope Pius XI |
Major shrine | Martyrs' Shrine, Midland |
Feast | 16 March, 26 September (Canada, also United States in General Roman Calendar 1962), 19 October (United States and elsewhere) |
Attributes | Pyx |
Patronage | Canada |
Jean de Brébeuf, SJ (French:
In 1649, Brébeuf and another missionary were captured when an
Biography
Early years
Brébeuf was born 25 March 1593 in
His record as a student was not particularly distinguished, but Brébeuf was already beginning to show an aptitude for languages. Later in New France, he would teach
Missionary
After three years as Steward at the College of Rouen, Brébeuf was chosen by the Provincial of France, Father Pierre Coton, to embark on the missions to New France.
In June 1625, Brébeuf arrived in
In Rouen, Brébeuf served as a preacher and
Along with
Called Échon by the Hurons,[5] Brébeuf was personally involved with teaching. His lengthy conversations with Huron friends left him with a good knowledge of their culture and spirituality.[8] He learned their language and taught it to other missionaries and colonists.[9] Fellow Jesuits such as Paul Ragueneau describe his ease and adaptability to the Huron way of life.[9]
His efforts to develop a complete ethnographic record of the Huron has been described as "the longest and most ambitious piece of ethnographic description in all
Brébeuf's progress as a missionary in achieving conversions was slow. Not until 1635 did some Huron agree to be baptized as Christians. He claimed to have made 14 converts as of 1635 and, by the next year, he claimed 86. He wrote a detailed account in 1636 of The Huron Feast of the Dead, a mass reburial of remains of loved ones after a community moved the location of its village. It was accompanied by elaborate ritual and gift-giving.
In 1638, Brébeuf turned over direction of the mission at Saint-Joseph I to
Brébeuf is credited with composing the "
Linguistic work
The educational rigor of the Jesuit seminaries prepared missionaries to acquire native languages.[9] But, as they had learned the classical and Romance languages, they likely had difficulty with the very different conventions of the New World indigenous languages.[16] Brébeuf's study of the languages was also shaped by his religious training. Current Catholic theology tried to reconcile knowledge of world languages with accounts in the Bible of the tower of Babel, as this was the basis of European history. This influence can be seen in his discussion of language in his accounts collected in The Jesuit Relations.[10]
Jean de Brébeuf's remarkable facility with language was one of the reasons he was chosen for the Huron mission in 1626.[17] He is distinguished for his commitment to learning the Huron (Wyandot) language. People with a strong positive attitude towards the language often learn the language much more easily.[18] Brébeuf was widely acknowledged to have best mastered the Native oratory style, which used metaphor, circumlocution and repetition. Learning the language was still onerous, and he wrote to warn other missionaries of the difficulties.[19]
To explain the low number of converts, Brébeuf noted that missionaries first had to master the Huron language.[20] His commitment to this work demonstrates he understood that mutual intelligibility was vital for communicating complex and abstract religious ideas. He believed learning native languages was imperative for the Jesuit missions, but noted that it was so difficult a task that it consumed most of the priest's time. Brébeuf felt his primary goal in his early years in New France was to learn the language.[21]
With increasing proficiency in the Wyandot language, Brébeuf became optimistic about advancing his missionary goals. By understanding Huron religious beliefs and communicating Christian fundamentals, he could secure converts to Christianity. He realized the people would not give up all their traditional beliefs.[19]
Brébeuf worked tirelessly to record his findings for the benefit of other missionaries. He built on the work of
He translated Ledesma's catechism from French into Huron, and arranged to have it printed. It was the first printed text in that language (with French orthography).[25] He also compiled a dictionary of Huron words, emphasizing translation of religious phrases such as from prayers and the Bible.
Death
Brébeuf was killed at St. Ignace in Huronia on 16 March 1649.[26] He had been taken captive with Gabriel Lalemant when the Iroquois destroyed the Huron mission village at Saint-Louis. The Iroquois took the priests to the occupied village of Taenhatenteron (also known as St. Ignace), where they subjected the missionaries and native converts to ritual torture before killing them.
Three priests had been killed in
Throughout the torture, Brébeuf was reported to have been more concerned for the fate of the other Jesuits and of the captive Native converts than for himself. As part of the ritual, the Iroquois drank his blood and ate his heart, as they wanted to absorb Brébeuf's courage in enduring the pain.[31] The Iroquois mocked baptism by pouring boiling water over his head.[32]
The Jesuits Christophe Regnault and Paul Ragueneau provided the two accounts of the deaths of Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant. According to Regnault, they learned of the tortures and deaths from Huron refugee witnesses who had escaped from Saint-Ignace.[33] Regnault went to see the bodies to verify the accounts, and his superior Ragueneau's account was based on his report.[34] The main accounts of Brébeuf's death come from The Jesuit Relations. Jesuit accounts of his torture emphasize his stoic nature and acceptance, claiming that he suffered silently without complaining.[35]
Potential martyrdom was a central component of the Jesuit missionary identity.[36] Missionaries going to Canada knew they were at risk from harsh conditions, as well as from confronting alien cultures. They expected to die in the name of God; they believed the missionary life and its risks were a chance to save converts and be saved.[37]
Relics, beatification and canonization
Fathers Brébeuf and Lalement were recovered and buried together in a Sainte Marie cemetery.
Brébeuf's family later donated his skull in a silver reliquary to the Catholic church orders in Québec.[38] It was held by the women of the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec and the Ursuline convent from 1650 until 1925, when the relics were moved to the Québec Seminary for a ceremony to celebrate Brébeuf's beatification.[42] According to Catholic belief, these relics provide physical access to the influence of the saint of whom they are a part.[43]
In 1652 Paul Raguenau went through the Relations and pulled out material relating to the martyrs of New France. He formalized this material in a document, to be used as the foundation of canonization proceedings, entitled Memoires touchant la mort et les vertus (des Pères Jesuits), or the Manuscript of 1652.[44] The religious communities in New France considered the Jesuit martyrs as imitators of previous saints in the Catholic Church.[42] In this sense, Brébeuf in particular, and others like him, reinforced the notion that "...Canada was a land of saints".[45]
Jean de Brébeuf was canonized by Pope Pius XI on 29 June 1930, and proclaimed one of the patron saints of Canada by Pope Pius XII on 16 October 1940.[5] A contemporary newspaper account of the canonization declares: "Brébeuf, the 'Ajax of the mission', stands out among them [others made saints with him] because of his giant frame, a man of noble birth, of vigorous passions tamed by religion," describing both the man and his defining drive according to formal terms of hagiography.[48]
The Jesuits of Canada and the United States announced a tour of Brébeuf's relics throughout both countries in 2024.[49]
Modern era
It is said that the modern name of the
He is buried in the Church of St. Joseph at the reconstructed Jesuit mission of
In September 1984, Pope John Paul II prayed over Brébeuf's skull before fully joining in an outdoor ecumenical service on the grounds of the nearby Martyrs' Shrine. The service was attended by an estimated 75,000 and mixed pre-Christian first-nation ritual with Catholic liturgy.[51]
Numerous schools are named in his honour:
- St. Jean Brebeuf School in Calgary, Alberta[52]
- St. John Brebeuf Regional Secondary School in Abbotsford, British Columbia.[53]
- St. John Brebeuf School in Winnipeg, Manitoba,[54] which is part of the St. John Brebeuf Catholic Parish
- Brebeuf College School in Toronto, Ontario
- St. Jean de Brébeuf Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario[55]
- St. Jean de Brébeuf Catholic Elementary School in Brantford, Ontario (Closed 2009)[56]
- St. Jean de Brebeuf Catholic High School in Vaughan, Ontario
- St. Jean Brebeuf Catholic School in Brampton, Ontario[57]
- St. John Brebeuf Catholic School in Erin, Ontario,[58] which is part of St. John Brebeuf Catholic Parish, part of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Hamilton, Ontario
- Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf in Montreal, Quebec
- École Jean-de-Brébeuf in Gatineau, Québec[59]
- Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Indiana
There is Eglise St-Jean de Brebeuf in Sudbury, Ontario, and a St. John Brebeuf Catholic Parish in Niles, Illinois, USA. There is also a unit at Camp Ondessonk in the Shawnee National Forest named after Jean de Brébeuf. The Catholic camp is named for all of the North American Martyrs and those who helped them.
The
The character of Christophe in The Orenda, a 2013 novel by Joseph Boyden, is based on Jean de Brebeuf.[60][61] The novel won the 2014 Canada Reads competition, a reality show with elimination-style voting on CBC Radio.
Jean de Brébeuf is the subject of Brébeuf and his Brethren, a blank-verse epic poem by the Canadian poet E. J. Pratt, FRSC, for which Pratt was awarded one of his three Governor General's Awards for Poetry in 1940.[62]
See also
- Saint Jean de Brébeuf, patron saint archive
References
Notes
Citations
- ^ Dictionary of Canadian Biography Jean de Brébeuf
- ^ St. Jean de Brébeuf: Canadian Martyr
- ^ a b c Campbell 1907.
- ^ Talbot 1949, p. 7.
- ^ a b c d e f g Latourelle 1979.
- ^ Leahey 1995, p. 106.
- ^ Trigger 1986, p. 229.
- ^ a b Greer 2000, p. 37.
- ^ a b c Leahey 1995, p. 119.
- ^ a b Greer 2000, p. 38.
- ^ Greer 2000, pp. 41, 61.
- ^ Trigger 1986, p. 202.
- ^ Trigger 1986, p. 290.
- ^ Brébeuf 2008, p. 121.
- ^ McGee 1985, p. 13.
- ^ Leahey 1995, p. 109.
- ^ Leahey 1995, p. 112.
- ^ Leahey 1995, p. 113.
- ^ a b Blackburn 2000, p. 88.
- ^ Blackburn 2000, p. 111.
- ^ Blackburn 2000, p. 117.
- ^ Leahey 1995, p. 116.
- ^ Leahey 1995, p. 122.
- ^ Leahey 1995, p. 129.
- ^ Leahey 1995, pp. 115–116.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 96.
- ^ Spillane, Edward P. (1908). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company. p. 621. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- ^ Lindsay, Lionel (1909). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company. p. 388. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- ^ Spillane, Edward P. (1908). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company. p. 551. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 68.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 98.
- ^ "Saint Who? Saint Jean de Brébeuf". Magnificat. 21 (3). Magnificat USA: 93. May 2019.
- ^ Parkman 1888, p. 101.
- ^ Parkman 1888, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Talbot 1949, p. 297.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 74.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 72.
- ^ a b Parkman 1888, p. 391.
- ^ a b Greer & April 2000, p. 333.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 101.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 112.
- ^ a b c Pearson 2008, p. 123.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 128.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 116.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 165.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 124.
- ^ Pearson 2008, p. 125.
- ^ NY Times & 30 June 1930.
- ^ "Brebeuf Tour 2024". Brebeuf Tour 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
- ^ Gray 2004.
- ^ Hluchy, Patricia (24 September 1984). "A healing hand on history". Maclean's. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
- ^ "St. Jean Brebeuf School – School Home". stjeanbrebeuf.cssd.ab.ca. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
- ^ "St. John Brebeuf Regional Secondary School". www.stjohnbrebeuf.ca. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
- ^ "St. John Brebeuf School". Retrieved 18 September 2021.
- ^ "The Buzz Board". sjb.hwcdsb.ca. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
- ^ Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board, Agenda Board 29 March 2011.pdf (29 March 2011). "BHNCDSB Board Meeting Agenda – March 29, 2011" (PDF). Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "St. Jean Brebeuf Elementary School". Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
- ^ "St. John Brebeuf Catholic School". stjohnbrebeuf.wellingtoncdsb.ca. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
- ^ "École Jean-de-Brébeuf". Centre de services scolaire de la Capitale (in French). Retrieved 18 September 2021.
- ^ Bethune, Brian (6 September 2013). "Joseph Boyden explains why readers must wait for the end of his trilogy". Maclean's. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
- ^ King, Hayden (7 March 2014). "The Orenda faces tough criticism from First Nations scholar". CBC News. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
- ^ "E.J. Pratt:Biography". Canadian Poetry Online. University of Toronto Libraries. Archived from the original on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2019 – via www.library.utoronto.ca.
Sources
- Blackburn, Carol (2000). Harvest of Souls: The Jesuit Missions and Colonialism in North America, 1632–1650. Montréal: McGill–Queens University Press. ISBN 0-7735-2047-3.
- Brébeuf, J. (2008). "The Mission to the Hurons (1635–37)". In Calloway, C.G. (ed.). First People: A Documentary of American Indian History (3rd ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford. ISBN 978-0-3126-5362-0.
- Campbell, T.J. (1907). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company. pp. 751–752. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- Gray, Charlotte (2004). The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder. Random House. ISBN 0-6793-1220-X.
- Greer, Allan, ed. (2000). The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins. ISBN 0-3122-2744-2.
- Greer, Allan (April 2000). "Colonial Saints: Gender, Race and Hagiography in New France". The William and Mary Quarterly. 57 (2). Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture: 323–348. JSTOR 2674478.
- Latourelle, René (1979) [1966]. "Brébeuf, Jean de (Échon)". In Brown, George Williams (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. I (1000–1700) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
- Leahey, Margaret J. (1995). "'Comment peut un muet prescher l'évangile' Jesuit Missionaries and the Native Languages of New France". French Historical Studies. 19 (1). Duke University Press: 105–131. JSTOR 286901.
- McGee, Timothy J. (1985). The Music of Canada. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-02279-X.
- Cortesi, Arnaldo (30 June 1930). "8 Jesuit Martyrs Declared Saints". The New York Times.
- Parkman, Francis (1888). The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.
- Pearson, Timothy G. (2008). Becoming Holy in Early Canada: Performance and the Making of Holy Persons in Society and Culture (PhD thesis). McGill University.
- Talbot, Francis X. (1949). Saint Among the Hurons: The Life of Jean de Brébeuf. New York: Harper & Brothers.
- Trigger, Bruce (1986). Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered. Montreal: McGill–Queen's University Press. ISBN 0-7735-0595-4.
- True, Micah (2015). Masters and Students: Jesuit Mission Ethnography in Seventeenth-Century New France. Montreal: McGill–Queen's University Press. ISBN 9780773545137.
External links
- Free scores by Jean de Brébeuf in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Bimbenet-Privat, Michèle, « Le buste reliquaire de saint Jean de Brébeuf par Charles de Poilly (1664), Un chef-d'œuvre de l'orfèvrerie parisienne conservé au Québec », Bulletin de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France 1995, Paris, Édition-diffusion de Boccard, 1997, p. 229–235, 4 ill.
- Derome, Robert, « Le buste-reliquaire de saint Jean de Brébeuf, histoires et mythes », Bulletin de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France 1995, Paris, Édition-diffusion de Boccard, 1997, p. 236–253, 6 ill.
- Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould (M.A.). "THE JESUIT MARTYRS IN CANADA. (A.D. 1644–1649.)." In: The Lives of the Saints. Volume the Eighth: July – Part II. London: John C. Nimmo, 1898. pp. 733–788.