I’m preparing a lesson on St. Isaac Jogues for some homeschool kids. I’ve got all the basics of his story.
I keep wondering if Catholicism ever was embraced by the Hurons or the Mohawks.
Does anyone know the history there?
It was just tragic that the epidemics of measles and smallpox and influences decimated the very people the Jesuits hoped to save.
stupid effects of original sin!!!
I’d appreciate any info or links. Thanks!
A good book on the subject is “Saint Among Savages,The Life of St. Isaac Jogues,” by Rev. Francis Talbot, SJ.
Many Hurons and Mohawks converted to the Catholic Faith. Kateri Tekakwitha, is called the “Lily of the Mohawks.”
However, I think Fr Talbot would’ve done better choosing a different title for his book. In today’s politically correct climate, referring to the Iroquois, as savages, despite their brutality and savage ways, turns people away from the book.
In fact, I visited the Shrine of North American Martyrs in Auriesville, NY, a couple years ago, and they didn’t carry the book in the gift store, probably because of the offensiveness of the title. However, the book is accurate and educational. I couldn’t put it down.
As for some history, the French Jesuits who went to Quebec and Upstate NY, were referred to as the Black Robes. They actually served the Native People well, and they suffered greatly including torture and death. In fact, the Native People would’ve been better served, had the French won the French Indian war, rather than the British. When the French arrived in Quebec, they help to educate the Huron people and gave them modern medicine. They in fact lived among the Huron, eating sleeping, wearing their form of clothing and even marrying. The Jesuits were especially involved in the education aspects. The French and Hurons would exchange orphan children, so that each could grow up learning the cultures, which could then be brought back to their own people.
The Iroquois however, it was a different story. The Iroquois were the brutal enemy of the Huron. The Iroquois made treaties with the British, who were not only anti-French, but staunchly anti-Catholic. They fed misinformation to the Iroquois about Catholicism, in order to fuel distrust.
One was that they told the Iroquois, never to allow a Black Robe, to make the sign of the cross over them. They told the natives that this was bad medicine and evil spirits would bring bad luck to them. Another was that the thumbs and forefingers of the Black Robs are strong medicine, blessed by the chief of their religion back in Rome. As a result of this misinformation, when Fr Isaac Jogues was taken prisoner, he was tied to a stake in the center of the village, where the women and children, chewed his thumbs off. The Iroquois and Hurons both practiced torture and cannibalism. The Jesuits were a factor in the Hurons abandoning this practice. Also, contrary to today’s political correctness, the Jesuits never forced conversion onto the Native People. In fact, in his diary, Fr Jogues tells of his refusal to Baptise some Huron people, until they went through training for a year, in order to understand the commitment they were making. Anyway, the book tells so much more.
FYI, Saint Isaac Jogues, actually first named the lake which we know as Lake George, as the Lake of the Blessed Sacrament. After the French Indian War, the British renamed it in honor of King George.
Jim
