Antoine Daniel
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| Saint Antoine Daniel | |
|---|---|
| Jesusit, Missionary, Martyr | |
| Born | May 27, 1601, Dieppe, Normandy, France |
| Died | July 4, 1648, A chapel near Hillsdale, Limcoe County, Ontario, Canada |
| Canonized | June 29, 1930 by Pope Pius XI |
| Feast | October 19 |
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Saint Antoine Daniel (27 May 1601 – 4 July 1648) was a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, and one of the eight Canadian Martyrs. Daniel was born at Dieppe, in Normandy, and was slain by the Iroquois at Teanaostae, near Hillsdale, Limcoe County, Ontario, Canada.
After two years' study of philosophy and one of law, Daniel entered the Society of Jesus in Rome, 1 October 1621. Daniel travelled to New France in 1633 and studied the Wendat language. He was first stationed at Cape Breton, where his brother Captain Daniel had established a French fort in 1629. In 1634 he travelled to Wendake with Frs. Brébeuf and Daoust. For two years he had charge at Quebec of a school for Indian boys, but with this exception he was connected with the mission at Ihonatiria, in the Huron country, from July, 1634, until his death fourteen years later.
Daniel spent most of his time at the village of Teanaostaye and Cahiaguie on Lake Couchiching. On his return to Teanaostaye in July of 1648, the village came under attack by Iroquois forces. Fr. Daniel, in an effort to cause a diversion, took up a cross and walked towards the advancing Iroquois, who cut him down with musket fire. Daniel's Wendat followers escaped with their lives. Daniel was canonized by Pope Pius XI on 29 June 1930.
To be merged: In the summer of 1648, the Iroquois made a sudden attack on the mission while most of the Huron braves were absent. Father Daniel did all in his power to aid his people. Before the palisades had been scaled he hurried to the chapel where the women, children, and old men were gathered, gave them general absolution and baptized the catechumens. Daniel himself made no attempt to escape, but calmly advanced to meet the enemy. Seized with amazement the savages halted for a moment, then recovering themselves they discharged at him a shower of arrows. "The victim to the heroism of charity", says Bancroft, "died, the name of Jesus on his lips, the wilderness gave him a grave; the Huron nation were his mourners" (vol. II, ch. xxxii). Here Bancroft is in error. The lifeless body was flung into the burning chapel and both were consumed together.
Daniel was the second to receive the martyr's crown among the Jesuits sent to New France, and the first of the missionaries to the Hurons. Father Ragueneau, his superior, speaks of him in a letter to the general of the order as "a truly remarkable man, humble, obedient, united with God, of never failing patience and indomitable courage in adversity" (Thwaites, tr. Relations, XXXIII, 253-269).
