Brebeuf: A Day In Normandy, France

The sun rises on a brisk spring day in Normandy, France. The date is March 23rd, 1633 - a very special day for St. Fr. Jean de Brebeuf. Brebeuf is a French missionary headed to the new world [Quebec to be exact] and his two month voyage begins today. His mission: convert as many of the Natives to Christianity as possible. Brebeuf had already been to New France once before for three years from June 19th, 1625 to June 17th, 1628. In this three year period he was shunned by other members in his colony, and his attempts to convert the Native Huron Indians were met with defeat. However, Brebeuf was not going to let previous failures impede his duty to bring Christianity to the Natives; he was going to travel 3078 miles away from his home city of Normandy, just to preach and share the Roman Catholic faith.

May 1633. As soon as Brebeuf arrived, and without even getting settled in, he undertook a thirty day journey to Lake Huron, where a mission he had founded with a man named Father Daniel was located. The next thirty days would put Brebeuf's life in constant danger, day and night. The next sixteen years would mean never ending labor and toil for Brebeuf. Sometime around the summer of 1640, he set out on another expedition assisted by his friend Father Chaumonot to convert a local tribe, the Neutres, to Catholicism. Unfortunately, Brebeuf’s group was met with a harsh winter and were unsuccessful in this mission. Later on, during the the height of the war between the Huron and Iroquois Indians, Brebeuf got a third chance to journey to the Huron villages, and this time he was