Isaac Jogues was only 29 years old when he first landed at Quebec; he was thirty-seven when he returned after a six months absence in Europe, and two years later — he was not yet forty — his brief life was crowned with the glorious triumph of dying a martyr for Christ. He shared that glory with his two heroic, ever-loyal companions. They were not priests, John Lalande and René Goupil; they were of the laity, one a doctor, the other a carpenter; but they were inspired by the same love of God and God’s love of souls; their characters had been formed in the same mould of selfless courage, their ambitions stretched upwards to the same lofty ideals of sacrifice and self-dedication to the cause of the Heart of Christ. They did not want to go to heaven alone. Their faith was too precious not to wish to share it with others.
RADIO MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS XII TO THE FAITHFUL OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA FOR THE THIRD CENTENARY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS
To learn more : la chapelle des jésuites and the martyrs shrine