Friday, Oct. 19, 28th Week in Ordinary Time
SAINTS ISAAC JOGUES AND COMPANIONS (d mid-17th century), Jesuits and Martyrs
Isaac JogueS and seven fellow Jesuits were the first martyrs of North America in Church history. In 1636, Jogues was with a Jesuit mission led by Jean de Brebeuf who arrived in Quebec in 1838 to evangelize the native American tribes. Working among the Hurons, Jogues was captured in 1642 by their rival Iroquois, tortured and imprisoned for 13 months. He was able to escape back to France with hands so mutilated - his fingers had been cut, chewed or burnt off - that Pope Urban VII had to give him a special dispensation to celebrate Mass. In 1646, he returned to Canada with Jean de Lalande, this time to evangelize the Iroquois themselves because of a recent peace treaty. Almost immediately upon arrival he was captured by a Mohawk war party and beheaded by tomahawk. The next day, De Lalande met the same fate near Albany, New York. Three years later, Jean de Brebeuf, who had stayed with the Hurons since Jogues's first mission, was martyred by the Iroquois. The other Jesuits martyred in the period were Rene Goupil who had been tortured with Jogues in 1642 but was tomahawked then and became the first of the Jesuit martyrs of Canada. Four others - Antony Daniel, Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier and Noel Chabanel were martyred in 1648-1649. All eight martyrs were canonized in 1930.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101912.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
The Holy Father was to meet in the afternoon with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation
for Bishops (weekly meeting).
No bulletin from the Synod yet, so we don't know if the Holy Father attended the sessions today.
SEVEN YEARS, SIX MONTHS AND COUNTING...
AD MULTOS ANNOS, SANCTE PATER!
It's Friday today, so I won't be back at the Forum till much later today.