Ss. John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, and Companions
This weekend, we celebrate our parish patron, Saint Noel Chabanel. Our official feast day on the liturgical calendar is October 19, on the memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues and Companions. Saint Noel (age 36), among five others, was one of those companions. Together, all eight (six priests and two laymen) comprise the North American Martyrs. A parish is always permitted to transfer their feast day, raised to a solemnity, to the nearest Sunday, in an effort to be celebrated by the greatest number of their own faithful. The prescribed readings for that Sunday are even permitted to be changed, to best reflect the solemn occasion; in our case, for someone who was a priest, missionary, and martyr.
Last month we welcomed Fr. Frank Rouleau from the Diocese of Norwich, to support the impoverished population of Haiti. Due to your generous support, our parish family was able to give him $5,947. As the calendar would have it, this Sunday is World Mission Sunday - a day set aside by the Church to remember and support the mission work being accomplished all around the world: today, sustaining outreach in over 1,150 territories. You may have already contributed generously last month, and as your pastor, I thank you! If you were unable to contribute at that time, we have the opportunity this weekend to offer general support to missionary efforts around the world. For those who receive envelopes, there is a designated one for this weekend’s special collection, or you can pick one up from the table in the narthex.
Our Jesuit patron, Saint Noel, felt deeply called to living out his vocation in this radical manner as a missionary, heeding our Lord’s command: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). Noel and his companions faced extreme suffering and hardship, and ultimately met violent deaths while serving God and the Church in the remote areas of eastern Canada and present-day New York state. They were blamed for the smallpox epidemic, but still tried to bring the faith, educate, and teach medical and agricultural skills to the native people. They founded schools and wrote a catechism and dictionary in the Huron language. Noel himself was a language professor, but could barely stutter out Huron phrases. The food and life of the culture repulsed him. Twice, he was offered the opportunity to return to his beloved France, but vowed to stay. Among his companions, they sometimes walked 40 miles to baptize a single child.
In the end, they were martyred for their efforts. The maxim, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians,” credited to the second century ecclesiastical writer, Tertullian, is profoundly evidenced by these eight Jesuit missionaries during the 17th century. May we honor them in our genuine witness to the faith.
Happy Feast Day!
Fr. Terry