Saint Isaac Jogues

Saint Isaac Jogues, SJ
Portrait of Saint Isaac Jogues exemplifying martyrdom with his mutilated hand
Priest, Missionary and Martyr
Born	(1607-01-10)10 January 1607 Orléans, Orléanais, Kingdom of France
Died	18 October 1646(1646-10-18) (aged 39) Ossernenon, Canada, New France
Venerated in	Catholic Church (Canada and the United States)
Beatified	21 June 1925, Rome, Italy, by Pope Pius XI
Canonized	29 June 1930, Vatican City by Pope Pius XI
Major shrine	National Shrine of the North American Martyrs, Auriesville, New York, United States
Feast	26 September (Canada), 19 October (United States)

St. Isaac Jogues, S.J. (10 January 1607 – 18 October 1646) was a Jesuit priest, missionary and martyr who traveled and worked among the Iroquois, Huron, and other Native populations in North America. He was the first European to name Lake George, calling it Lac du Saint Sacrement (Lake of the Blessed Sacrament). In 1646, Jogues was martyred by the Mohawk at their village of Ossernenon, south of the Mohawk River.

Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf and six other martyred missionaries, all Jesuit priests or laymen associated with them, were canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1930; they are known as "The North American Martyrs." A shrine was built in their honor at Auriesville, New York, at a site formerly believed to be that of the Mohawk village. Their feast day is celebrated on 26 September in Canada, and on 19 October in the United States of America.

Isaac Jogues was born to Laurent Jogues and Françoise de Sainte-Mesmin on 10 January 1607. He was born in Orléans, France, into a bourgeois family, where he was the fifth of nine children. He was educated at home until the age of ten, at which point he began attending Jesuit schools. In 1624, at the age of seventeen, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen in Northern France. Here, his Master of Novices was Louis Lallemant. The Jesuit community had a strong missionary spirit, beginning in 1625 with their first mission to New France, including missionary pioneers, Énemond Massé, and later, Jean de Brébeuf. Lallement had two brothers and a nephew serving as missionaries in the colony of New France. These Jesuit missionaries inspired Jogues, and he aspired to follow in their footsteps.