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Isaac Jogues was a priest only seven months and was 29 years of age when he came to Canada in 1636. He helped build Ste. Marie (1639) and explored as far west as Sault Ste. Marie. When the Iroquois blockaded the Ottawa route and the missionaries faced starvation, he volunteered to go to Quebec. On the return journey, he was captured by the Iroquois, brutally tortured, and made a slave. Thirteen months later, he escaped to France. Next year he was back in Canada and was sent as an emissary to discuss a treaty with the Iroquois. He went, “his heart seized with dread,” at the prospect of again falling into the hands of his torturers. They blamed him for the disaster of a harvest failure. He was seized at Ossernenan (now Auriesville, N.Y.) and cruelly beaten. A blow from a tomahawk gave him the crown of Martyrdom on October 18, 1646, at the age of 39.
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North America
