Background
Goupil was baptized in Street-Martin-du-Bois, near Angers, in the ancient Province of Anjou, on 15 May 1608, the son of Hipolite and Luce Provost Goupil.
Goupil was baptized in Street-Martin-du-Bois, near Angers, in the ancient Province of Anjou, on 15 May 1608, the son of Hipolite and Luce Provost Goupil.
He had to leave the novitiate due to deafness. In 1640 he arrived in New France. From 1640 to 1642 he served at the Saint-Joseph de Sillery Mission, near Quebec, where he was charged with caring for the sick and wounded at the hospital.
His work primarily involved wound dressings and bloodlettings.
They were captured by the Mohawk, taken to their easternmost village of Ossernenon (about 9 miles west of present-day Auriesville, New York), and tortured. After teaching the native children the sign of the cross, Goupil was killed 29 September 1642 by several blows to the head with a tomahawk.
Jogues. Many of the 24 Huron accompanying Goupil were baptized Catholic converts.
Traditional enemies of the Mohawk, they were slowly tortured in accordance with Iroquois ritual before being killed. He was canonized on 29 June 1930 by Pope Pius XI along with the seven other Canadian Martyrs or "North American Martyrs".
He is the patron saint of anesthetists. At Fordham University"s Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx, New York, a freshman dormitory—Martyrs" Court—has three sections, which are named for the three United States martyr-saints: René Goupil, Isaac Jogues, and Jean Lalande.
Goupil is also honored at the Catholic youth camp Camp Ondessonk, where a unit is named after him.