Jean de Brébeuf
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| Saint Jean de Brébeuf | |
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| Martyr; Apostle of the Hurons; Echon | |
| Born | 25 March 1593, Normandy |
| Died | 16 March 1649, Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, near Midland, Ontario, Canada |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholicism, Anglican Communion |
| Beatified | 1925 |
| Canonized | June 29, 1930 by Pope Pius XI |
| Major shrine | Martyrs' Shrine, Midland, Ontario, Canada |
| Feast | October 19 |
| Patronage | Canada |
 Saints Portal |
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Saint Jean de Brébeuf (25 March 1593 – 16 March 1649) was a Jesuit missionary, martyred in Canada March 16 1649.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
Brébeuf was born on Condé-sur-Vire, Normandy, France, a son of farmers. He was the uncle of the poet Georges de Brébeuf. He studied near home at Caen allowing him to work on the family highway. He became a Jesuit in 1617, joining the Order at Rouen. He almost was pushed from the Society due to his contraction of tuberculosis--an illness which prevented both studying and teaching for the traditional periods.
[edit] Priestly Years
In 1622 he was ordained. Against the voiced desires of Huguenot Protestants, officials of trading companies, and some Indians, he was granted his wish and in 1625 he sailed to Canada as a missionary, arriving on June 19, and lived with the Huron natives near Lake Huron, learning their customs and language, of which he became an expert (it is said that he wrote the first dictionary of the Huron language). He has been called Canada's "first serious ethnographer." Although the missionaries were recalled in 1629, Brébeuf returned to Canada in 1633. He was the founder of the Huron mission, a position he relinquished to Father Jérôme Lalemant in 1638.
He unsuccessfully attempted to convert the Neutral nation on Lake Erie in 1640. In 1643 he wrote the Huron Carol, a Christmas carol which is still, in a very modified version, used today. Brebeuf’s charismatic presence in the Huron country helped cause a split between traditionalist Huron and those who wanted to adopt European culture.
Montreal-based ethnohistorian Bruce Trigger argues that this cleavage in Huron society, along with the spread of disease from Europeans, left the Huron vulnerable.
[edit] Attaining Sainthood
In 1649, the Iroquois attacked the Wendat (Huron) village of St. Louis where Brébeuf was working along with his colleague Gabriel Lalemant, and both men were captured and tortured, mutilated, and burned to death, concluding, some say, with an act of Iroquois cannibalism on March 16, 1649 at St. Ignace, six miles from Ste. Marie. Brébeuf was fifty-six years old.
Brebeuf’s body was recovered a few days later. His body was boiled in lye to remove the bones, which became church relics. His flesh was buried, along with that of Lalemant's, at the Jesuit mission of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons (1639-1649).
In September, 2004, Pope John Paul II prayed over Brebeuf's skull, which was re-assembled and brought to Martyrs' Shrine in Midland; The shrine is next to the reconstructed Jesuit mission of Ste. Marie.
Brébeuf was said to have been massive in body, hugely strong, yet gentle in character, with the heart of a giant. He was known as "The Apostle of the Hurons". The Indians called him "Echon".
Brébeuf was canonized in 1930 with seven other missionaries, known as the Canadian Martyrs. He is a patron saint of Canada, and his feast day is October 19th. Many Jesuit schools are named after him, such as College Jean-de-Brebeuf, Brebeuf College School and Brebeuf High School.
It is said that the modern name of the Indian sport of lacrosse was first coined by Brébeuf who thought that the sticks used in the game reminded him of a bishop's crosier.[1]
