Brébeuf, Jean de, Saint

Brébeuf, Jean de, Saint (zhäN də brāböf`), 1593–1649, French Roman Catholic missionary, one of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America. A Norman, he was sent (1625) to Quebec and did missionary work among the Huron. The warfare of the Huron and Iroquois caused the abandonment of his mission in 1628, and in 1629 on the surrender of Quebec to the English he went back to France. In 1633 he returned to Canada and carried on his work among the native people, enduring great hardships. In 1649 the Iroquois took the Huron village and the mission. Father Brébeuf and his colleague, Gabriel Lalemant, were tortured to death. He was canonized in 1930. Feast: Sept. 26 or (among the Jesuits) Mar. 16.

Bibliography

See his Travels and Sufferings of Father Jean de Brébeuf among the Hurons of Canada, ed. by T. Besterman (tr. 1938); biography by F. X. Talbot (1949).