Jean de Brébeuf

Background

Jean de Brébeuf was born on March 25, 1593, in Condé-sur-Vire, Normandy, France, where his family belonged to the petty landed aristocracy.

Career

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1617 and was ordained in 1622. For the next 3 years he was treasurer at the Jesuit secondary school in Rouen. In 1625, at his own request, he went to the newly opened Jesuit mission in New France. In order to master the native tongue, Brébeuf left Quebec in October 1625 and lived for 5 months among the Montagnais, who belonged to the Algonquin nation. His missionary labors concentrated on the conversion of the Huron in southeastern Ontario.

Brébeuf was the first apostle to contact the Hurons, and evangelization involved the severest physical hardships, augmented by surroundings revolting to Christian norms of morality and European sensibilities. During his initial stay, lasting 3 years, Father Brébeuf familiarized himself with Huron ways and translated the catechism into Huron, but he made no converts.

The English occupation of Quebec in 1629 necessitated Brébeuf's return to France. There he reverted to his former work as treasurer at the school in Rouen. When France and England signed a peace treaty in 1633, he returned to Quebec in company with its founder and his friend, the explorer Samuel de Champlain.

Brébeuf's second journey to Huronia was more successful. Brébeuf was head of the Mission of St. Joseph, a community of Christian Native Americans at Sillery near Quebec, from 1641 to 1644, when he left for his third and final stay in Huronia. A rapid increase in conversions greatly strengthened his hopes for Christianizing the entire people. But on March 16, 1649, Iroquois braves-implacable enemies of the Huron, the French, and the missionaries-captured Fathers Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant at the mission station of St. Louis, dragged them a short distance to St. Ignace Mission, and tortured them for hours before killing them. These two, along with four other priests and two lay assistants, known collectively as the North American Martyrs, were beatified in 1925 and canonized in 1930.

Achievements

• Being a Jesuit missionary, he worked primarily with the Huron for the rest of his life, except for a few years in France. He baptized numerous Huron dying infants and adults, along with a small number of healthy adults. He translated Ledesma's catechism from French into Huron, and arranged to have it printed. It was the first printed text in that language (with French orthography). He also compiled a dictionary of Huron words, emphasizing translation of religious phrases, such as from prayers and the Bible.
  
  Brébeuf was beatified in 1925 and among eight Jesuit missionaries canonized as saints in the Roman Catholic Church in 1930. He was proclaimed one of the patron saints of Canada by Pope Pius XII on 16 October 1940. Many Jesuit schools are named after him, such as Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf in Montreal, Brébeuf College School in Toronto and Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Indiana. St. John Brebeuf Regional Secondary School in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada and St. Jean de Brebeuf Catholic High School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada are also named in his honour.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Huron Carol

    (Originally written in the early 1600s and in the native l...)

Views

Brébeuf noted that missionaries first had to master the Huron language. His commitment to this work demonstrates he understood that mutual intelligibility was vital for communicating complex and abstract religious ideas. He believed learning native languages was imperative for the Jesuit missions but noted that it was so difficult a task, that it consumed most of the priest’s time. Brébeuf felt his primary goal in his early years in New France was to learn the language.

Personality

The natives of New France were in awe of his unusual height, strength, and fortitude. They admired his nobility of character, leadership qualities, patience and prudence, and fluency in the local dialect.

Connections

nephew:

Georges de Brébeuf

poet

Friend:

Samuel de Champlain

References

• Jean De Brebeuf, 1593-1649
• Brebeuf: A martyrdom of Jean de
• Saint Among the Hurons: The Life of Jean De Brebeuf
• Le drame de la Huronie et Jean de Brébeuf