Isaac Jogues (16O7 – 1646) was born in Orleans, France. Educated in
Jesuit schools from the age of 10, he himself became a Jesuit at 17
and entered the novitiate in Rouen. There, he met with Father Louis
Lalemant, who had three relatives serving as missionaries in New
France (Canada). This was possibly the point at which Isaac decided
that he too wanted to be sent out as a missionary to New France.
However, after he had finished his novitiate, he was appointed in 1629
as a school teacher of humanities in Rouen. After four years of
teaching, he went to Clermont, Paris, to study theology and after
three years of study was ordained as a priest.
All this while, Isaac had been longing to join the missionaries in New
France. The Jesuits had sent Jean de Brebeuf there in 1625 to open a
mission to the Huron Indians 900 miles inland. Finally, he was
accepted for this work, and in April 1, 1636 he set sail from Dieppe,
arriving eight weeks later at Baie des Chaleurs. From there, he
travelled to Three Rivers, a French trading post on the St. Lawrence
River, near Quebec, and got there on July 2. On August 20, Isaac wrote
to his mother, saying that he had been ordered to go to the Huron
mission. He set out in a canoe, accompanied by five Huron Indians, on
August 24. In his writings, Isaac described how the only food
available during the journey was crushed and boiled Indian corn and
how he travelled in silence because he could not speak the language of
his companions. Finally, he reached the mission at Ihonatiria (near
the present day Midland, Ontario) on September 11.
Initially, he worked with the Tobacco Indians, who were neighbors of
the Hurons to the west, but met only with hostility. Then he moved to
working with the Hurons in and around Sainte-Marie where a mission had
been established in 1639. The Hurons called him "Ondessonk" (bird of
prey).
In 1641, he was ordered to go to another Indian nation called the
inhabitants of the Sault, who were mostly based in the area where
Sault Ste. Marie stands today at the juncture of Lake Huron and Lake
Superior. They arrived at the end of September, but by early November
had returned to Sainte-Marie.
The following year, he was told to travel to Three Rivers and Quebec,
to help deliver supplies, and set out in mid-June. On August 1, Isaac
left Quebec to travel back to Sainte-Marie. The party was ambushed by
Iroquois on August 2. Isaac, together with his companions, was taken
prisoner, tortured and taken to Mohawk country south of the St.
Lawrence. The ill treatment continued throughout.
On September 7, the nearby Dutch settlers sent a representative to
arrange for the French captives, including Isaac, to be liberated.
However, this was refused. On September 29, Isaac and a companion were
attacked by two young Iroquois just outside of the village of
Ossermenon (present day Auriesville, near Albany, Montgomery County,
NY). The companion was killed.
Finally, in August 1643, while taking part in a fishing expedition
with his captors, Isaac and his party entered a Dutch village (Fort
Orange (Albany, New York) ) to do some trading. The head of the
village helped him to escape and sent him to New Amsterdam (New York),
from where he caught a ship back to France.
However, although his experiences had brought him fame in France, he
longed to return to missionary work. In the spring of 1644, he
returned to New France, arriving in June. Instead of being sent back
to his work with the Huron, he was assigned to deal with the Iroquois
in the new colony of Montreal. In May 1646, he went to the Mohawks,
his former captors, in the role of an ambassador of peace, but
returned to Quebec in July. Towards the September, he set out again
from Three Rivers on a similar mission.
It was only in June 1647, that his colleagues in Quebec learned that
he and a companion had been beaten and tomahawked to death in
Ossermenon. He was declared a saint and martyr by the Pope on June 29,
1930.
Information from an article by Angus MacDougall at
http://www.wyandot.org/jogues.htm (Wyandot Nation of Kansas Website)
And from http://www.stisaac.org/isaacarticles.htm (a collection of
articles on the web site of Saint Isaac Jogues Parish, Wayne, PA)
Search strategy 1. "Isaac Jogues" "New France" 2. Ossermenon |
