Unlimited audacity, faith and perseverance are the qualities that Brébeuf found necessary for “those of the Society who come to New France should be impelled to it by a special and very forcible call; persons who are dead to themselves and to the world; men truly apostolic, ho seek God alone, and the salvation of souls, who love the Cross (…) who do not spare themselves (…) who have Godlike hearts, all filled with God; who are like little John the Baptists, crying through these deserts and forests like voices from God, which summon all (…) to acknowledge Jesus Christ; in fine let them be men whose sole satisfaction is in God (…) But it belongs to God alone to choose whom he will use, and whom he favors by taking them into New France, to make saints of them. Saint Francis Xavier said that there was an island in the Orient whish was quite capable of making a person lose his sight, by crying from excessive joy of the heart; I know not if our New France resembles this island, but we know from experience that, if anyone here gives himself up in earnest to God, he runs the risk of losing his sight, his life, his all, and with great joy (…)
The Jesuit Relations, 1634-1636
