SAINT GABRIEL LALEMANT
Also Known as:
Jesuit, Missionary and Martyr of Canada
Feast:
September 26 (Canada); October 19 (U.S.)
Born:
October 3, 1610
About Saint Gabriel Lalemant
In 1630 Lalemant joined the Jesuits and in 1632 took the vow to devote himself to foreign missions. Despite the vow, he spent 14 years in France before going to Canada. He taught at the Collège in Moulins from 1632 to 1635. He was at Bourges from 1635 to 1639 studying theology and then taught at three different schools before arriving in Quebec in September, 1646.
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Little is known about Lalemant's stay in Quebec. In September 1648 he was sent to Wendake, the land of the Wendat, as an assistant to Father Jean de Brébeuf. He was first posted to the mission at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. In February 1649 he replaced Noël Chabanel at the mission of Saint Louis. In March Lalemant and Brébeuf were captured there by the Iroquois and taken to the nearby mission at Saint Ignace. There he was tortured before being killed on March 17, 1649.
Prayer
"I am indebted to my relatives, to my mother and to my brothers, and I must try to draw down on them the mercy of God. Never permit, O God, that any of my family, for whom Thou hast shown so much love, perish in Thy sight, or that there be one amongst them who will blaspheme Thee for all eternity in Hell. Let me be a victim for them!"Amen.
