Thursday, September 25, 2008

The Canadian Martyrs in the "Vineyard of the Hurons"

They [the enemy tribe] therefore practiced, in a short time, savage cruelties, — especially upon the children, whom they tore from their mothers’ breasts in order to throw them alive into the fire. Father Charles Garnier was at that time alone there of ours; nor would he hear mention of fleeing . . .

-- The Jesuit Relations

My Lord JESUS CHRIST, — who through a special disposition of your fatherly providence have made me, although unworthy, a coadjutor of your Holy Apostles in this vineyard
of the Hurons . . . receive me for a perpetual servant of this mission, making me worthy of so sublime a ministry.

-- St. Noel Chabanel