A
Aelred_Minor
Guest
This isn’t the usual kind of topic discussed in this forum, but I think it fits better than any of the other forums.
I recently read The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, which is set in and around Fort William Henry on the shore Lake George, New York. The author mentioned that the French missionaries called this lake lac du saint sacrement, and suggested that they chose this lake of all the bodies of water in the region to conduct baptisms in (the author implied that this was because of its beauty), and because of this it was named for the holy sacrament of baptism.
I’ve found out that the missionary who gave the lake this name was none other than St. Isaac Jogues, probably the best known of the North American martyrs, who was martyred by the Mohawks in Ossernenon, modern Auriesville, NY- the same village where about ten years later a girl was born who is now set to be canonized St. Kateri Tekakwitha in October.
Anyway, Cooper’s account of the history of the lake (and his history is often inaccurate- for instance he criticizes Montcalm for not doing exactly what he did in fact do: try to stop the Massacre of Fort William Henry) raised several questions for me, and I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on any of them:
-Is it really plausible that baptism, rather than the Eucharist, is the “holy sacrament” the French name for the lake refers to?
-Did St. Isaac Jogues or other Jesuit missionaries really baptize natives in the lake?
-Were these baptisms in the lake, if they happened, by immersion, as the location would suggest but which seems highly unusual for the time period?
-Do French speakers in Canada or elsewhere ever still use these sorts of old, often very Catholic names for places that have since been given English names?
I recently read The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, which is set in and around Fort William Henry on the shore Lake George, New York. The author mentioned that the French missionaries called this lake lac du saint sacrement, and suggested that they chose this lake of all the bodies of water in the region to conduct baptisms in (the author implied that this was because of its beauty), and because of this it was named for the holy sacrament of baptism.
I’ve found out that the missionary who gave the lake this name was none other than St. Isaac Jogues, probably the best known of the North American martyrs, who was martyred by the Mohawks in Ossernenon, modern Auriesville, NY- the same village where about ten years later a girl was born who is now set to be canonized St. Kateri Tekakwitha in October.
Anyway, Cooper’s account of the history of the lake (and his history is often inaccurate- for instance he criticizes Montcalm for not doing exactly what he did in fact do: try to stop the Massacre of Fort William Henry) raised several questions for me, and I’d be interested in people’s thoughts on any of them:
-Is it really plausible that baptism, rather than the Eucharist, is the “holy sacrament” the French name for the lake refers to?
-Did St. Isaac Jogues or other Jesuit missionaries really baptize natives in the lake?
-Were these baptisms in the lake, if they happened, by immersion, as the location would suggest but which seems highly unusual for the time period?
-Do French speakers in Canada or elsewhere ever still use these sorts of old, often very Catholic names for places that have since been given English names?