Today is Oct. 19, the memorial of Sts. John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests, and their companions, martyrs.
In today’s Gospel Jesus teaches: “When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say” (Lk 12:11-12).
Jean de Brebeuf, a French Jesuit missionary among the Huron in North America, began to perceive within himself a burning desire to give his life for Christ. He wrote a vow, in Latin, which he repeated each day after holy Communion: “I vow, I repeat, to You, my Lord Jesus, that if the grace of martyrdom is ever offered, in your infinite mercy, to me, your unworthy servant, I shall not fail this grace; and I vow in such manner for the rest of my life that it will never be permitted for me either to avoid the occasions that offer themselves of dying for You (unless I might judge that it is for Your greater glory to do so), or not to accept most joyously the stroke of death inflicted on me.” The fire that would consume de Brebeuf’s body was no match for the fire that burned deep within his soul.
The accounts of his martyrdom, handed down by eyewitnesses, say that even as he was being killed, Jean de Brebeuf preached to his tormentors, trying to convert them to the Gospel. They poured boiling water on him in mockery of baptism and seared his flesh with red-hot hatchets. And still de Brebeuf tried to convert his oppressors.
“To You, therefore, my Lord Jesus, my blood, my body and my soul, now from this very day, I offer myself rejoicingly, so that I may die for you, if so you wish, for you who deigned to die for me,” de Brebeuf had written in his vow. God, in his providence, deigned to make it so.
Prayer invoking the intercession of the North American martyrs:
O God, who chose to manifest the blessed hope of your eternal Kingdom by the toil of saints John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues and their companions and by the shedding of their blood, graciously grant that through their intercession the faith of Christians may be strengthened day by day. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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