Canadian Martyrs
Holy card depicting the martyrs
Born	France
Died	17th century,Canada andUpstate New York
Martyred by	Iroquois
Venerated in	Catholic Church Anglicanism
Beatified	June 21, 1925,Rome,byPope Pius XI
Canonized	June 29, 1930,Rome,byPope Pius XI
Majorshrine	Martyrs' Shrine,Midland, Ontario, Canada National Shrine of the North American Martyrs,Auriesville, New York
Feast	September 26 (inCanada and amongTraditional Roman Catholics) October 19 (General Calendar); Anglican Church of Canada
Patronage	Canada

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TheCanadian Martyrs (French:Martyrs canadiens), also known as theNorth American Martyrs (French:Saints martyrs canadiens, Holy Canadian Martyrs), were eightJesuit missionaries fromSainte-Marie among the Hurons. They were rituallytortured and killed on various dates in the mid-17th century inCanada, in what is nowsouthern Ontario, and inupstate New York, during the warfare between theIroquioan tribes theMohawk and theWyandot (Huron). They have subsequently beencanonized and venerated asmartyrs by theCatholic Church.

The martyrs are:

Jesuit missionaries worked among the Huron (Wendat), anIroquoian-speaking people who occupied territory in the Georgian Bay area ofCentral Ontario. (They were not part of the Iroquois Confederacy, initially made up of five tribes south and east of the Great Lakes.) The area of their traditional territory is calledHuronia. The Huron in this area were farmers, fishermen and traders who lived in villages surrounded by defensive wooden palisades for protection.^[7] Sainte-Marie among the Hurons was the headquarters for the French Jesuit Mission to the Huron Wendat people.^[8]

By the late 1640s, the Jesuits believed they were making progress in their mission to the Huron, and claimed to have made many converts. But, the priests were not universally trusted. Many Huron considered them to be malevolentshamans who brought death and disease wherever they travelled; after European contact, the Huron had suffered high fatalities in epidemics after 1634 ofsmallpox and other Eurasianinfectious diseases.

The nations of the Iroquois Confederacy considered the Jesuits legitimate targets of their raids and warfare, as the missionaries were nominally allies of the Huron and French fur traders. Retaliating for French colonial attacks against the Iroquois was also a reason for their raids against the Huron and Jesuits.

In 1642, the Mohawk capturedRené Goupil,^[1] and FatherIsaac Jogues,^[2] bringing them back to their village of Ossernenon south of the Mohawk River. They ritually tortured both men and killed Goupil. After several months of captivity, Jogues was ransomed by Dutch traders and the ministerJohannes Megapolensis from New Netherland (later Albany). He returned for a time to France, but then sailed back to Quebec. In 1646 he andJean de Lalande were killed during a visit to Ossernenon intended to achieve peace between the French and the Mohawk.^[3]

Other Jesuit missionaries were killed by the Mohawk and martyred in the following years:Antoine Daniel (1648),^[9]Jean de Brébeuf (1649),^[5]Noël Chabanel (1649),^[6]Charles Garnier (1649),^[6] andGabriel Lalemant (1649).^[5] All were canonized in 1930 as the Canadian Martyrs, also known as the North American Martyrs.

The martyrs werecanonized byPope Pius XI in 1930.^[10] They are collectively the secondarypatron saints of Canada. St. René Goupil, St. Isaac Jogues, and St. Jean de Lalande are the first threeU.S. saints, martyred at Ossernenon, 9 miles (14.5 km) west of the confluence of the Schoharie andMohawk rivers. Theirfeast day is celebrated in theGeneral Roman Calendar and in the United States on October 19 under the title of "John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs," and in Canada on September 26.

TheMartyrs' Shrine inMidland, Ontario,^[11] the site of the Jesuits' missionary work among the Huron, is the National Shrine to the Canadian Martyrs.

ANational Shrine of the North American Martyrs has been constructed and dedicated inAuriesville, New York.^[12] It is located south of the Mohawk River, near a Jesuit cemetery containing remains of missionaries who died in the area from 1669 to 1684, when the Jesuits had a local mission to the Mohawk.

Churches dedicated to the martyrs include the following:

• National Shrine of the North American Martyrs inAuriesville,New York.
• Nostra Signora del Santissimo Sacramento e Santi Martiri Canadesi, the Canadiannational church in Rome
• Martyrs' Shrine in Midland, Ontario^[13]
• Canadian Martyrs Parish in Calgary, AB
• Canadian Martyrs Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia^[14][15][16]
• Canadian Martyrs Catholic Church inOttawa, Ontario[1]
• Canadian Martyrs Parish inRichmond, British Columbia
• Canadian Martyrs Parish in Invermere, BC
• The parish of Saints-Martyrs-Canadiens[2] founded in 1961 in St. Boniface (now part of Winnipeg), Manitoba
• North American Martyrs Parish and School inMonroeville, Pennsylvania
• North American Martyrs Catholic Church inLincoln, Nebraska
• North American Martyrs Catholic Church inAuburn, Massachusetts
• North American Martyrs Catholic Church, a parish of thePriestly Fraternity of St. Peter inSeattle, Washington
• St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church inWayne, Pennsylvania^[17]
• American Martyrs Parish inManhattan Beach, California
• American Martyrs Roman Catholic Church inBayside, New York.
• American Martyrs Catholic Church inKingsford, Michigan.
• The Chapel of the North American Martyrs at the University of Detroit Jesuit High SchoolDetroit, Michigan
• The Chapel of the North American Martyrs at Jesuit High SchoolSacramento, California
• The Chapel of the North American Martyrs atJesuit High School New OrleansNew Orleans, Louisiana^[18]
• The Chapel of the North American Martyrs atWalsh Jesuit High School inCuyahoga Falls, Ohio
• The Kaboni Catholic Church (St. Anthony Daniel Parish), located inWiikwemkoong First Nation, Ontario.
• Canadian Martyrs' Church in Hamilton, Ontario
• St-Charles Garnier Church in Hamilton Ontario
• St-Charles Garnier Church in Kelowna, British Columbia
• The parishes of Saints-Martyrs-Canadiens in Montréal, in the City of Québec, in Victoriaville, in Trois-Rivières, and in Beauharnois (province of Québec, Canada).
• Holy Martyrs of North America Catholic Church inFalmouth, Maine.

Many schools also honour the martyrs, including the following:

• The sports teams of thePontifical North American College in Rome
• Elementary schools named after them inGuelph, Ontario,Newmarket, Ontario,East York, Ontario,Hamilton, Ontario,Burlington, Ontario,Penetanguishene, Ontario,Niagara Falls, Ontario andVictoria Harbour, Ontario
• Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School inIndianapolis, Indiana
• Jesuit High School in Sacramento, California, where each building on the campus has been named after one of the saints
• Jesuit High School inNew Orleans, Louisiana
• Walsh Jesuit High School inCuyahoga Falls, Ohio, which holds the martyrs as their patron saints. Walsh Jesuit's chapel is named in their honour.
• Brebeuf College School, Jesuit (formerly) Catholic Secondary School in Willowdale (north Toronto) established in 1963, named after St. Jean de Brébeuf
• Canadian Martyrs Elementary School (Grades Kindergarten to Grade 8)Ottawa, Ontario established by Oblates Of Mary Immaculate 1930-1983[3][4]

• The parish municipality of Saints-Martyrs-Canadiens, in Quebec, Canada

The torture of the martyrs by the Iroquois is the subject depicted in the twelve-light World War I memorial window (1933) byCharles William Kelsey at theLoyola College (Montreal) chapel, at the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes on the campus ofGeorgetown Preparatory School inNorth Bethesda, Maryland, and a side shine atMadonna Della Strada Chapel on the campus ofLoyola University Chicago.Fordham University additionally has named the Martyrs' Court residential complex in their collective honour, as well as individual halls in the complex being named for Jogues, Goupil and Lalande. The North American College in Rome has a crypt chapel dedicated to the North American Martyrs.

The martyrs are also honoured atCamp Ondessonk, a Catholic summer camp inOzark, Illinois, where each unit of cabins is named after one of the martyrs, and also at the American Martyrs Retreat House inCedar Falls, Iowa.

• Ajacán Mission 1571 massacre [Jesuit Martyrs]
• Jesuit missions in North America
• Christian martyrs
• Martyrs' Shrine
• National Shrine of the North American Martyrs

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCanadian Martyrs.

• Fisher, Lillian M. (2001).The North American Martyrs: Jesuits in the New World. Boston: Pauline Books & Media.ISBN 0-8198-5132-9.
• Trigger, Bruce (1990).The Hurons: Farmers of the North. University of Michigan: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.ISBN 0030316898.

• Jesuit martyrs
• Canadian Roman Catholic saints
• 17th-century Roman Catholic martyrs
• Lists of Christian martyrs
• History of Catholicism in Canada
• History of Catholicism in the United States
• People of New France
• Groups of Roman Catholic saints
• Groups of Christian martyrs of the Early Modern era
• 1642 deaths
• Lists of saints
• Canadian torture victims
• 1642 in the Thirteen Colonies
• 2017 in Canada
• 17th century in the Province of New York
• 17th century in Ontario

• Articles with short description
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• Articles containing French-language text
• Commons category link is on Wikidata