To strengthen French-Huron relationship, the French authorities convinced the Hurons to exchange children for the year. So it was that 10-year-old French orphan boy Jean Amyot and Fr. Jogues traded places in the birchbark canoes with three Huron youths for the return trip to the Huron villages. For weeks the two newcomers squatted shoeless and motionless in the fragile canoes as they followed the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers westward. Jean and Isaac began to grow accustomed to the Hurons' habits and to the sound of their language, and learned of necessity to eat the native food.
Pere Jean de Brebeuf, was the first "Blackrobe" to reach the Hurons. Fr. Jogues' arrival brought the Blackrobes' total to five, three recently arrived. Fr. Brebeuf began sharing his several years of experience with the newer missionaries. "We can only progress slowly and count on God's ways," he cautioned the newcomers.
The Hurons were traditionally friendly to all strangers. The Blackrobes felt free to move in and out of the longhouses of the villages and knew the Indians would share what they had with them. The Hurons felt equally free to sit near the fire in the Blackrobes' lodge, to partake of their meals, and to talk to them of their belief.
Some Hurons guessed, and rightly so, that the arrival of the Blackrobes was a mixed blessing. It seemed that illness and death, thought by the Hurons to be caused by angry spirits, came with the Frenchmen. Fr. Jogues was sick with influenza his first winter with the Hurons and it spread to several other Frenchmen. The epidemic spread from village to village. Fr. Jogues was blamed and some Hurons wanted him to leave. As summer arrived, the epidemic lessened. As Fr. Jogues learned the ways and language of the Hurons he became more acceptable.
In I the summer of 1642, the Hurons decided to forego their annual trading trip to Three Rivers since Iroquois war parties were infiltrating the area. The missionaries, knowing that a lack of medicine and supplies would cause much suffering, decided to make the trip alone. Fr. Jogues offered to go and some Christian Hurons and French laymen offered to accompany him. The four canoes made it safely to Three Rivers where a young French doctor joined them for the return trip with the year's supplies. On their return, the group was attacked and captured by Mohawks, members of the Iroquois nation. They were paraded through many villages and constantly tortured as their captors traveled south to Osserienon, their village in upstate New York near present day Auriesville. not far from Albany. They finally arrived at Ossernenon with open wounds and broken bones.
An Algonquin captive was forced to cut off Fr. Jogues' thumb to assure the Mohawks that the missionary would never use weapons against them. Several of the captives were killed. The young French doctor asked Fr. Jogues if he might vow his life to God as a Jesuit since only his health had deterred him from joining the Society earlier. He did so and was soon killed, thus becoming the first North American Jesuit martyr.
For some reason the Mohawks were saving Fr. Jogues, perhaps as protection against reprisal from the French. He ended up in the service of a respected old Mohawk woman who preserved his life more than once and even called him "nephew." Once, while he acted as his "aunt's" porter to a Dutch town, the men of the town offered to help Fr. Jogues escape. At first he refused since he was learning the ways and languages of the Mohawk people and felt he might even be able to share his beliefs with them. But eventually, he knew be must escape the wrath of his captors.
A kindly Dutch ship's captain returned Fr. Jogues to France on Christmas Day, 1643, and he was able that day to receive communion for the first time in seventeen months. When Fr. Jogues reached the Jesuits, his appearance was so changed that at first he wasn't recognized. The Pope gave Fr. Jogues permission to use his remaining fingers to hold the consecrated host at Mass. Fr. Jogues spoke with love of his former persecutors. Since he now knew their language and customs, he felt God had suited him well to return to the native Americans. In time, Fr. Jogues' superiors agreed.
The Jesuits of Three Rivers were astonished to see Isaac Jogues reappear on a ship from Europe! Fr. Jogues was equally surprised to hear that the Hurons and Iroquois had cautiously begun to trade prisoners rather than kill them. Fr. Jogues went back to Ossernenon, the place of his captivity, as an envoy of the French to help with this peace effort. Then he decided to return there a second time, not as a diplomat but as a priest. Before leaving he wrote these words to a fellow priest:
"My heart tells me that if I am the one to be sent on this mission I shall go but I shall not return. I would be glad if our Lord wished to complete the sacrifice where He began it. Farewell, dear Father. Pray that God unite me to Himself inseparably."
Fr. Jogues returned to his aunt's longhouse but could tell she was concerned for him once again. A long summer's drought was believed to have been caused by evil spirits in his Mass kit which he had left there. Also, the younger braves were irritated by their elders' moves towards peace and knew that Fr. Jogues bad encouraged the exchange of prisoners. While the elders were in council, a young Mohawk asked Fr. Jogues and a Jesuit volunteer who had come with him to come speak to the young braves in his lodge. Both "Auntie" and Fr. Jogues knew that he would have no security outside her longhouse, yet, to refuse the invitation would be unthinkable. Fr. Jogues went, and, as he entered the lodge of the young man, he was killed. He died in October of 1646, ten years after first arriving in the New World. (1)
1 “North American Martyrs” by Sister Pat Davis, OP
