As a newly-ordained Jesuit, Saint Isaac Jogues was the first Catholic priest to ever set foot on the great island of Manhattan, now part of New York City. He was born in France, but wanted to be a missionary, in the new lands of North America. Jesuit missionaries were called “black robes,” by the native people in America.
Saint Isaac Jogues was sent to Canada's native territories. He traveled around the Great Lakes like St. Jean de Brebeuf, preaching the Gospel to the Huron, the Iroquois, and the Sioux tribes. He brought many to Christ, but in 1642, Iroquois natives cut off Jogues' fingers and made him a slave.
Eventually, he was ransomed and returned to Europe. Because of the injury to his hands, Saint Isaac Jogues was required to obtain special permission to celebrate Mass.
Saint Isaac Jogues returned to Canada, and immediately asked his superiors if he could minister to the tribe that had mutilated him and made him a slave. After much hesitation, he was allowed to. When he found the Iroquois, he discovered that many of them were sick and dying. The Iroquois believed that this illness was put on them by Saint Isaac Joques. He was accused of witchcraft and murdered with a tomahawk.
The man who killed Saint Isaac Jogues eventually found the love of Christ. He was baptized and chose the name Isaac Jogues.
Saint Isaac Jogues is known as the Apostle to the Mohawks. He and the other Canadian missionary martyrs are the patron saints of North America. Saint Isaac Jogues believed that Jesus allowed him to suffer and share in Jesus’s suffering on the cross. We can ask Saint Isaac Jogues to help us unite our suffering, no matter how small, to Christ as well.