"Evil Spirits Who Prowl The World Seeking the Ruin of Souls"
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The Cathedral Basilica of Notre Dame de Quebec in Quebec City is
working to replace relics of Canadian saints that were stolen after a
break-in last month.
Monsignor Denis Bélanger told CNA that on the night of Sept. 11, someone broke into the cathedral by breaking a window.
The money had already been collected for the day from the church’s
donation boxes, so the still-unknown person stole a large reliquary
containing relics of Canadian saints as well as some items from the
church’s gift shop.
Some of the native Canadian saints whose relics were contained in the stolen reliquary include St. François de Laval, Saint André of Montreal, St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, and St. Kateri Tekakwitha. The reliquary also contained relics from three of the eight North American martyrs - Fr. Jean de Brébeuf, Fr. Charles Garnier, and Fr. Gabriel Lalemant - French Jesuit missionaries killed by tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy.
“We have relics only from three of them because the bodies of the five others were never recovered,” Bélanger said.
Remember this as you read about how hard it is to be a missionary in the Amazon:
John de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were finally captured, tortured and martyred in the most appalling manner. Both priests were tied to stakes. Mocking baptism, the Iroquois poured boiling water over their heads to scald them. They then cut off the nose, ears, lips, and other body parts of de Brebeuf, smashed his teeth with a club, put red hot hatchet blades on his shoulders, put hot coals on top of his head, and then smashed his skull with a tomahawk. They pulled out the eyes of Lalemant and forced hot coals into the sockets, they sliced open his thighs in the form of a cross and then burned him at the stake. Both priests prayed as long as they could and proclaimed their love and forgiveness for their torturers. (The account of their martyrdom was made public by some of the Indians who had witnessed it and later were converted to the Catholic Faith.) Because de Brebeuf died so stoically without crying out, something the Indians greatly admired, they cut out his heart and liver after his death and ate them raw, and drank his blood so they could, in their belief, obtain his kind of courage and ability to endure pain.
St John deBrebeuf and St Gabriel Lalemant, ora pro nobis.
Monsignor Denis Bélanger told CNA that on the night of Sept. 11, someone broke into the cathedral by breaking a window.
Some of the native Canadian saints whose relics were contained in the stolen reliquary include St. François de Laval, Saint André of Montreal, St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, and St. Kateri Tekakwitha. The reliquary also contained relics from three of the eight North American martyrs - Fr. Jean de Brébeuf, Fr. Charles Garnier, and Fr. Gabriel Lalemant - French Jesuit missionaries killed by tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy.
“We have relics only from three of them because the bodies of the five others were never recovered,” Bélanger said.
Remember this as you read about how hard it is to be a missionary in the Amazon:
John de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were finally captured, tortured and martyred in the most appalling manner. Both priests were tied to stakes. Mocking baptism, the Iroquois poured boiling water over their heads to scald them. They then cut off the nose, ears, lips, and other body parts of de Brebeuf, smashed his teeth with a club, put red hot hatchet blades on his shoulders, put hot coals on top of his head, and then smashed his skull with a tomahawk. They pulled out the eyes of Lalemant and forced hot coals into the sockets, they sliced open his thighs in the form of a cross and then burned him at the stake. Both priests prayed as long as they could and proclaimed their love and forgiveness for their torturers. (The account of their martyrdom was made public by some of the Indians who had witnessed it and later were converted to the Catholic Faith.) Because de Brebeuf died so stoically without crying out, something the Indians greatly admired, they cut out his heart and liver after his death and ate them raw, and drank his blood so they could, in their belief, obtain his kind of courage and ability to endure pain.
St John deBrebeuf and St Gabriel Lalemant, ora pro nobis.
posted by jope @ October 27, 2019
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