Who were the Canadian Martyrs?
The eight Canadian or North American Martyrs were six French Jesuit priests and two lay companions, who lived and worked among the Wendat or Huron people in the early 17th century. Five of them were martyred in the region known as Huronia or Wendake in Ontario, and three were martyred in the country of the Iroquois in what is now upstate New York. They were beatified (declared “blesseds”) in 1925, canonized as saints in 1930, and declared the co-patrons of Canada in 1940. They are to date the only canonized martyrs of North America.

Who was St. Jean de Brébeuf?
The most well-known of the Canadian Martyrs is St. Jean de Brébeuf. He came to Canada in 1625 and lived in Wendake or “Huronia” for nearly 25 years. Known for his gentleness, kindness and strength, he quickly earned the friendship of the Wendat and was especially close to the Bear Clan. He was the first European to learn the Wendat language, wrote a French-Wendat dictionary, and composed Canada’s first Christmas hymn (The Huron Carol). A mystic with a deep prayer life, Brébeuf had dreams and visions of the saints and once of a large cross in the sky. During the 1649 invasion of Huronia by the Iroquois, Brébeuf was captured with his companion St. Gabriel Lalemant on March 16, 1649 and taken to the village of St. Ignace where they were ritually tortured and killed.

Who was St. Kateri Tekakwitha?
St. Kateri, informally known as “the Lily of the Mohawks”, was born in 1656 to an Algonquin mother and Mohawk (Iroquois) chief in the village of Ossernenon in present day upstate New York. She lost most of her family to a smallpox epidemic, and herself recovered with scars on her face. At the age of 18, she met the Jesuit priest Jacques de Lamberville, and shared with him her desire for baptism, which she took a year later. After undergoing harassment in her village, she moved to the Christian Mohawk village of Kahnawake (south shore of present-day Montreal). She took a vow of virginity and devoted herself to prayer and to helping the people around her. She struggled with poor health, and when she died on April 17, 1680 at the age of 23 or 24, her last witnessed words were “Jesus, Mary, I love you.” She purportedly appeared to three individuals after her death. More than 300 books have been written about her extraordinary life. She was beatified in 1980 and canonized in 2012. St. Kateri is the first indigenous person to be canonized as a saint and is venerated by First Nations peoples across North America. Her tomb is at her shrine in Kahnawake, Quebec. The home of her relic is at the Martyrs’ Shrine.