St. Isaac Jogues

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

St. Isaac Jogues, S.J. (January 10, 1607 – October 18, 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 September 26 in Canada, and on October 19 in the United States of America.

Isaac Jogues was born on January 10, 1607, 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 master, Louis Lallement, already had two brothers and a nephew serving as missionaries in the colony of New France.

Jogues professed simple vows in 1626, and went to study philosophy at the royal college of La Flèche. In 1629, he went to teach humanities to young boys in Rouen.