Charles Garnier (missionary)

Saint Charles Garnier

North American Martyrs
Born May 25, 1606
Paris, France
Died December 7, 1649 (aged 43)
Tobacco Nation country near Collingwood, Canada
Venerated in Catholic Church
Canonized 1930 by Pope Pius XI
Feast October 19

Saint Charles Garnier, S.J., baptised in Paris on May 25, 1606, was a Jesuit missionary, who was killed in a Tobacco Nation village on December 7, 1649.[1] [2]

The son of a secretary to King Henri III of France, Garnier joined the Jesuit seminary in Clermont in 1624 and was ordained in 1635. His father initially forbade him from travelling to Canada where he would face almost certain death as a missionary, but he was eventually allowed to go and arrived in the colony of New France in 1636. He travelled immediately to the Huron mission with fellow Jesuit, Pierre Chastellain.

He spent the rest of his life as a missionary among the Hurons, never returning to Quebec. The Hurons nicknamed him "Ouracha", or "rain-giver", after his arrival was followed by a drought-ending rainfall. He was greatly influenced by fellow missionary Jean de Brébeuf, and was known as the "lamb" to Brebeuf's "lion". When Brébeuf was killed in March 1649, Garnier knew he too might soon die. On December 7, 1649 he was indeed killed by the Iroquois during an attack on the Petun village where he was living.

Charles Garnier was canonized in 1930 by Pope Pius XI with the other Canadian Martyrs, and his feast day is October 19.

References

  1. ↑ Charlotte Gray 'The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder' Random House, 2004
  2. ↑ Florian Larivière s.j. 'La Vie ardente de Saint Charles Garnier' Bellarmin Montréal, 1957
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