Saint for October: St. Isaac Jogues, S.J.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recommends particular saints and blesseds to study during the Year of Faith. St. Isaac Jogues, S.J. is our saint for the month of October.

St. Isaac Jogues, S.J.

Jesuit priest, missionary and one of the North American martyrs

St. Isaac Jogues was born in 1607 and ordained a Jesuit priest in 1636. During the year following his ordination, Isaac saw the fulfillment of his dearest wish: to be a missionary to the Indians in New France. His first several years of missionary work among the Indians were quiet enough, but in 1641, he and a group of fellow missionaries traveled to Iroquois country. There, the missionaries were whipped, bitten, and tormented in the most barbarous ways imaginable. St. Isaac Jogues became a living martyr, watching his friends die around him and being constantly threatened by death himself. After a year of this torment, in which Isaac was able to evangelize and baptize a few of the Iroquois, a chance for escape presented itself. He boarded a Dutch ship and went back to France. This only lasted a few months, however, as his heart still longed to bring the Word of God to the Iroquois.This return mission was to be his last. Isaac foresaw this when he wrote to a fellow Jesuit, saying “My heart tells me that, if I am the one to be sent on this mission, I shall go but I shall not return. But I would be happy if our Lord wished to complete the sacrifice where he began it.” He was killed with a tomahawk in 1646, and canonized a saint in 1930 by Pope Pius XI. He is the patron saint of the Americas and Canada.

The above was excerpted from the USCCB website. Learn more here: http://usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/saints-for-the-year-of-faith.cfm