The North American Martyrs’ Deep Devotion to Mary

For this week only, the North American Martyrs Workbook is available as part of the Catholic Mom Bundle, along with many more fabulous resources to help your family dive deeper into your faith.

I am so excited today to share with you this post from guest author Bonnie Way. Bonnie writes over at The Koala Mom, and we recently connected on the topic of North American saints. Bonnie has a new book out on the North American Martyrs (I’ll link to it at the end!), and I immediately felt a great camaraderie with her when I saw how much her desires for resources for her own children has led her to publishing for a greater audience. I think that you’ll love her story of faith and growth in devotion to Our Lady, and that her genuine heart for the Lord will resonate with you as it has with me.

Fun fact: Appendix 2 from In the School of the Holy Spirit, which I mentioned in yesterday’s blog on Praying with and in the Holy Spirit is excerpts from a conference on docility to the Holy Spirit given by Fr. Louis Lallemant, who was the priest in charge of the Third Year of of Jesuit training in the 1600’s. Among his students were St. Isaac Jogues and St. Jean de Brebeuf, two of the North American Martyrs.

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When I joined the Catholic Church at age twenty-three, I was a bit skeptical of Marian devotion. I’d grown up attending Lutheran churches and learning from an anti-Catholic homeschool curriculum. When I started dating the man who became my husband, my mom’s chief objection to our relationship was that Catholics worship Mary.

It was far easier for me to fall in love with Catholic saints. I’d become a history buff in high school and taken a history minor during my first degree. My mom had also often used biographies of great Christian heroes as our religious studies. My love for history, heroes, and good stories drew me into the lives of the saints.

And it was through the lives of the saints that I came to a deeper appreciation of Mary. Over and over again, as I read about different saints, I encountered their devotion to Mary. Marian consecration is woven through the fabric of the Church as surely as the Eucharist, and just as I was drawn to Christ in the Eucharist—present only in the Catholic Church—so I became drawn to His Mother.

I first came across the North American Martyrs when I was researching Canadian Catholic saints. These eight men intrigued me both as a Catholic and as a history buff. And as I read about them, I discovered that, like so many other saints, they had a deep love for Mary.

The North American Martyrs’ Devotion to Mary

In 1634, two Jesuit priests arrived in Three Rivers, Quebec on the Feast of Our Lady’s Nativity. They consecrated their mission there to the Immaculate Conception. In Huronia, they named their first mission St. Marie to honour Our Lady. Another mission was named St. Joseph to honour her Spouse.

St. Antoine Daniel was very popular among the Huron as a teacher. To help the children learn the Creed, Our Father, and Hail Mary, he turned them into songs.

St. Rene Goupil was the first martyr among the Jesuit missionaries. With St. Isaac Jogues, he’d been captured by the Iroquois. They were taken from village to village by the Iroquois, tortured in each, yet also had the freedom to wander out of the village and pray the rosary together. I can only imagine them viewing Jesus’ life through Mary’s eyes in their prayers and finding deep consolation in the Sorrowful Mysteries as they faced their own sufferings.

They were returning from their prayers one evening when St. Rene was tomahawked in the head by an Iroquois who was angry at him for making the sign of the cross to a child. I’m sure Mary’s arms were wide open to receive her beloved son immediately. St. Isaac endured a year of captivity along among the Iroquois before escaping with the help of Dutch traders.

He went home to France to his own mother. Throughout his time in New France, he’d sent regular letters home to his mother. Perhaps his deep relationship with his earthly mother helped him draw close to his heavenly Mother.

He could have remained in France for the rest of his life, a celebrated hero of the faith and of the missions. Instead, he begged permission to return to New France. He’d learned the Iroquois language and wanted to evangelize them too. Four years after St. Rene’s death, St. Isaac was once again captured by the Iroquois and killed in a similar manner.

St. Jean de Brebeuf served the longest among the missions in New France. In his book Under Mary’s Mantle, Fr. Emile-Marie Briere says St. Jean “had made a vow to accept martyrdom, desiring to be crucified in imitation to Christ. Like Our Lady, he was completely submissive to the will of God.”

Another Missionary’s Love for Mary

Father Pierre Chaumonot, who was a fellow Jesuit missionary and dear friend of St. Charles Garnier, was also deeply devoted to Our Lady and St. Joseph. He took the name Joseph-Marie on his ordination because of this. He and arrived in New France in 1639 and served as a priest and missionary until his death in 1693. A cause is currently open for his canonization.

In writing to his spiritual director, he said, “I was consoled to hear … of your holy ambition to surpass everyone in your love for Our Lady. May God grant that you can communicate this spirit to all on earth who desire it! May I dare to ask you, for the love of Mary, the Virgin Mother, whom you love so much, to obtain for me the favor of being admitted among the least of your associates in the service of this sovereign mistress, or, if you prefer, as the most insignificant of your brothers in adoption to this Mother of mercy?”

Father Pierre also spoke of why he loved Mary so much: because it was through her work, her fiat, that Jesus came to us. He said he was displeased “that so many persons receive Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, with the immense gifts that He imparts, without giving any sign of gratitude to her who has given Him to us.” Because it was the Eucharist which first drew me into the Catholic Church, this gratitude to Mary made complete sense to me.

Father Pierre gave his own advice for devotion to Our Lady. He wrote, “I would further desire that, before and after Mass and Holy Communion, the greatest possible honour be paid to the Blessed Mother. For example, on the evening before Holy Communion, one could implore her to take possession of his heart in preparation for the reception of her Son. After Mass, one could thank her for having given us such a lovable Shepherd of Soul.”

It’s hard not to love a priest who uses words like “lovable” and “adorable” to refer to Jesus. And as he, in his love for Jesus, also overflows in his love for Jesus’ mother, he drew me into that same love. This love for Jesus and Mary was evident in the first Huron converts, who formed a sodality to Mary. They prayed the rosary regularly, a practice I am still working acquire.

Learning to Love Mary Myself

As I’ve read the lives of the North American Martyrs and their friends, I’ve been blown away by what they endured. These men are truly giants of the faith, and if I had to describe them in one word, I would say “LOVE.”

Out of their great love for Jesus, for Mary, and for the people of North America, they were willing to risk everything. They were truly sons of God, deeply devoted to their Father and their Mother, and completely obedient to God’s will, just as Mary had been.

It is this love that I hope children sense in reading about the lives of these saints in North American Martyrs Kids Activity Book. Through the stories, questions and activities in the book, I want to help kids understand the deep, deep love these men had for God and for Mary, and the deep, deep roots of faith they have left for us.

If we all lived Marian devotion like the North American Martyrs, our world would once again be transformed, as the Huron nation was four hundred years ago.

(Father Pierre Chaumonot’s quotes are from Jesuit Missionaries to North America: Spiritual Writings and Biographic Sketches by Fancois Roustang, S.J.)

If you have kids in elementary school and are teaching American history or North American geography, definitely check out Bonnie’s book. It really is spectacular.