The North American Martyrs and the Lake of the Blessed Sacrament

In 1646, Fr. Isaac Jogues, S.J. (1607-1646) named the body of water depicted in this lovely painting the "Lac du Saint Sacrement" (Lake of the Blessed Sacrament).* In the same year, Fr. Jogues and his companion Jean de Lalande, a lay missionary, were martyred by the Mohawk Indians near what is now Auriesville, New York, about 65 miles from the lake. 

Their martyrdom occurred on October 18, 1646. In 1930, Pope Pius XI canonized Isaac Jogues, along with Jean de Lalande and six other martyred missionaries, now known as the "North American Martyrs". Their feast is celebrated on September 26 in Canada and in the traditional calendar. In the modern calendar, it is celebrated October 19. 

Fr. Jogues was born in Orléans, France on January 10, 1607. He entered the Jesuit novitiate school at Rouen at age 17, and went on to study at the royal college at La Fleche, and then at the College of Clermont at the University of Paris. He celebrated his first Mass on February 10, 1636, and a few months later was on his way to the Jesuit mission in New France on the north American continent:

"In the summer of 1636, at the age of twenty-nine, he embarked for Canada with several of his fellows . . . Drawings of Jogues made at about this time reveal features of unusual refinement; this air of delicacy was, however, deceptive, for beneath it lay heroic powers of physical endurance."

In 1642, some Huron Indian converts, along with missionaries William Couture, Rene Goupil, and Fr. Jogues were attacked by Mohawk warriors. Some of the Hurons escaped. Fr. Jogues could have gotten away too but when he saw that Goupil, a physician, had been captured, he gave himself up. They were taken to the fortress of the Mohawks in what is now east central New York State:

"Fr. Jogues wrote: 'We were made to go up from the shore between two lines of Indians who were armed with clubs, sticks, and knives. I was the last and blows were showered on me. I fell on the ground and thought my end had come, but they lifted me up all streaming with blood and carried me more dead than alive to the platform.' Worse tortures followed. The Iroquois were especially cruel to the Huron converts. At this time and during subsequent torturings Father Jogues suffered the loss of two fingers."

To be more specific, according to Fr. Jogues own description, the Mohawks used their teeth to tear out nearly all of his fingernails and bit off two of his fingers. Goupil was killed, and Fr. Jogues was held as a slave for more than a year:

"'He would sometimes escape. . . and wander in the forest, telling his beads and repeating passages of Scripture. In a remote and lonely spot he cut the bark in the form of a cross from the trunk of a great tree; and here he made his prayers. [He was a] living martyr, half clad in shaggy furs, kneeling in the snow among the icicled rocks and beneath the gloomy pines, bowing in adoration before the emblem of his faith in which was his only consolation and his only hope' . . . The Indians were not without respect for their strange captive, naming him 'the indomitable one.' . . . As opportunity offered, he baptized children he found dying. During the year he baptized some seventy persons . . ."

In Fr. Jogues' letters, he wrote that once he baptized two Indians by using for baptismal water the raindrops that had gathered on some corn stalks given them to chew. He baptized others using water from a stream. Some Protestant Dutchmen helped Fr. Jogues escape his Mohawk captors and paid a sum to the Indians not to pursue him.

On November 5, 1643, Fr. Jogues left by ship from what is now New York City, and towards the end of December reached the coast of Cornwall. From there, he took a coal ship to Brittany, arriving on Christmas Day. Then he traveled on to Rennes where he went to the rector's house. There he astonished the rector since it was commonly believed he had likely been killed.

During an encounter with Fr. Jogues, Anne of Austria (1601-1666) was moved to tears when she saw his wounded hands, which had barely healed from the cruelty of the Indians. The Queen then paid him homage:

"Jogues was received by Anne of Austria, and told his story. At its conclusion, the Queen arose and stooped to kiss the mutilated hands . . ."

Fr. Joques was concerned that the injuries to his hands would make it illicit for him to say Mass. Pope Urban VIII, however, abrogated for him the rule that the Eucharist could only be touched with the thumb and forefinger. In doing this, the Pope used words to the effect that it would not be just to prevent a martyr for Christ from drinking the Blood of Christ.

Fr. Jogues desired to return to North America and was permitted to do so. By June, 1644, he was back in Quebec, and worked successfully for some time, even traveling back and forth to the place where he had formerly been held hostage. In 1646, however, he was again taken captive by the Mohawks, along with the lay missionary Jean de Lalande:

"In the [Mohawk] councils the majority were ready to give the brave Ondessonk [Fr. Jogues] his freedom, but the minority faction, members of the Bear clan, took matters into their own hands. They invited Jogues to pay them a visit, and as he unsuspectingly entered the cabin of the Bear chief, he was brutally tomahawked. The next day Lalande met the same fate, and both bodies were thrown into a nearby ravine. Their heads were cut off and placed on poles facing the trail by which they had come, as if in warning to other Black Robes."

On the site of the martyrdom of Fr. Jogues and Lalande, there is now a shrine:

"Today, near the town of Auriesville, New York, which on the best archeological authority is accepted as the site of Ossernenon, there is a famous Catholic shrine and pilgrimage place. It was dedicated in 1885 to the Martyrs of North America and to their Indian converts. Here pilgrims come to honor the memory of the Jesuits of the seventeenth century who faced death in the wilderness. The eight martyrs—Jogues, Lalande, Brebeuf, Lalemant, Garnier, Daniel, Goupil, and Chabanel . . .".

Source: The quoted material is from "Saint Isaac Jogues, Martyr - 1646", an article in the online library of the Eternal Word Television Network that relies on a Lives of the Saints published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc., author and year unknown.

Image: Painting by John F. Kensett, from Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain. 

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*Now more commonly known by its secular name, Lake George, this lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State will always be the Lake of the Blessed Sacrament to Catholics.

Satan Never Sleeps (1962)

Satan Never Sleeps is a 1962 motion picture directed by Leo McCarey and based on a novel by Protestant China missionary daughter, Pearl S. Buck. It was not a commercial success and it is easy to understand why.

The script uses the same light humor and silly interaction between a grumpy older priest (Fr. Bovard played by Clifton Webb) and a bumbling younger cleric (Fr. O'Banion played by William Holden) that worked in McCarey's Going My Way.  In this film, however, those antics fall flat because McCarey transposes them onto two incredibly serious and grim subjects -- the brutality with which the Chinese communists persecuted the Chinese Christians and Christian missionaries in the late 1940s, and the marriage of a woman to her rapist so that the child born of the rape will know his father.

A positive aspect of the film is that it accurately depicts such tragic events as the communists trashing the interior of the church, tearing down the crucifix, putting up Chairman Mao's picture where the crucifix used to be, and using the church for communist indoctrination sessions.  That is just what the Reds did many places in real life.

Another positive thing is that for the most part both priests are courageous.  And, Fr. O'Banion maintains his chastity despite being ardently pursued by a physically attractive and romantically aggressive young woman (Siu Lan played by France Nuyen).

Unfortunately, the film is riddled with such nonsense as a scene where Siu Lan smiles and waves flirtatiously at Fr. O'Banion while he is kneeling during a Mass offered by Fr. Bovard right after the priests discover that most of the Chinese Catholics have deserted the church in fear of the communists, who have just taken over the town.

Later, when a local ex-altar boy turned communist (Ho San played by Weaver Lee) rapes Siu Lan, it is such a jarring departure from all the silliness that it is as if one is watching a different movie.  And, when Ho San converts back to Catholicism after losing status with the communists for being too individualistic, one questions the sincerity of his re-conversion.

As if that transition did not make impossible demands on the viewer, Ho San then marries Siu Lan and when their baby is baptized by Fr. O'Banion, the silliness is reintroduced.  I found it offensive that this supposedly "happy ending" is treated with the same fluffiness as the conclusion of any television sit-com from the 1970s.

I would really like to see a new version of this film with the screenplay re-written as a drama that does justice to the very serious questions presented.  It might be quite good.  As it is, the only value the movie has is its accurate portrayal of Chinese communist atrocities and the heroic resistance of the Chinese Catholics, who tear down Mao's picture and try to raise the Cross again. For that I give the film three roses.

Fr. De Smet and the Flathead Indians

It is well known that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" (Tertullian). One way in which the seed of the martyrdom of St. Isaac Jogues and the other North American Martyrs bore fruit was in the form of a band of Catholic Iroquois who many decades later encountered and evangelized the Flathead Indians of the Rocky Mountain area of North America.

The Flatheads had an oral tradition prophesying the arrival of black-robed, pale-faced men. Once the Iroquois clarified this oral tradition for the Flatheads, their desire for the Faith was so great that they made several long and arduous expeditions to St. Louis, Missouri, pleading with the bishop to send them a priest. Finally, the bishop sent them Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Belgian Jesuit. What ensued is a most remarkable story, told in two beautiful audio sermons, available for free mp3 download via these links:

The Flathead Indians and the Black Robes - Part I

The Flathead Indians and the Black Robes - Part II

Image:
Photograph of Fr. De Smet from Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain.

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman and Curt Jergens, is a fictionalized account of the life of Gladys Aylward (1902-1970), an English parlor maid who became an evangelist in China.

The film is set in the early 1930's. Aylward is rejected by a missionary organization and decides to go to China on her own. She makes the trip to China via the Trans-Siberian Railway and then goes by mule to the city of Yangcheng, south of Beijing. There she helps an aging missionary, Jennie Lawson, open an inn that caters to mule team drivers. Lawson evangelizes the muleteers by telling them Bible stories as they eat meals prepared by Lawson's Chinese cook, Mr. Yang.

After Lawson dies as a result of a fall, Aylward continues alone, with the help of Yang. The local mandarin drafts Aylward as a foot-inspector to enforce the laws against foot-binding, which gives Aylward the income she needs to keep the inn open and the opportunity to evangelize in the countryside.

After establishing herself as a foot inspector and winning the trust of the mandarin, Aylward is called to the local prison during a bloody riot and -- in a breathtaking sequence -- resolves the conflict peacefully. She takes several rejected Chinese children into her home and becomes a Chinese citizen. Ultimately the mandarin converts to Christianity. After the town is attacked by the Japanese in the late 1930s during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Aylward leads a contingent of a hundred children over the mountains and across the Yellow River to safety -- a treacherous effort that takes twelve days.

This film is very enjoyable. It celebrates courage and determination. Not-so-good men are converted. The triumph of a rag-tag band of orphans over tremendous odds is appealing. And, there is a tender love story.

One might think that the film was more fiction than fact. It is true the story has been fictionalized, but apparently the essential facts are true, and in some respects the real story was even more dramatic than the film. In real life, Aylward did travel across Siberia by train, run the inn, become a foot inspector, adopt several children, befriend the mandarin, become a Chinese citizen, and lead 100 children in a 12-day trek over the mountains. The mandarin really did convert, and Aylward did have a romantic involvement with a Chinese Colonel, Lin Nan.

It is said that Aylward, a chaste and modest woman, was very unhappy when she heard that the film had love scenes. One can only suppose she never saw the movie, because the encounters between Aylward and Col. Lin are among the most chaste that Hollywood has ever produced.

When Aylward and Col. Lin stop by a river while traveling on horseback from one town to another, Lin tests Aylward by inviting her to go for a swim. Her reaction is a model of genuine purity, and Bergman portrays it with complete authenticity. When Lin then tells Aylward she is not at all like a man, this is not an effort to follow up his initial overture, but rather an admiring affirmation of her profound chastity.

There is a beautiful scene in a country inn where the guests sleep communally on the kang. Col. Lin settles himself on the other side of a little girl Aylward has just purchased for sixpence from a woman who was exploiting the girl (not her own child) as a tool for begging. From Lin's amazed and vigilant gaze at Aylward, one can see that Lin, embittered by painful experiences in his early life, is awakening to the realization that he has at last found a woman he can truly love.

Some time later, after the two have acknowledged their love in the garden of the mandarin, Col. Lin kisses Aylward's hands with a restrained ardor -- that of a manly man completely smitten with a brave, bright, and virtuous woman. Despite their mutual love, however, they agree that duty comes first: he must lead the local resistance against the Japanese invaders and she must lead the children to safety -- and that is what they proceed to do.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable film that does not wear out with repeated viewings.  There is no impurity or vulgarity.  Despite the violence of the prison scene (which should not be viewed by children), I give the film five roses.