René Goupil

          Much of what we know about René Goupil we owe to another saint featured on American Saints and Causes, fellow North American Martyr Isaac Jogues, who wrote of Goupil in his letters and was present at Goupil's martyrdom. Thought to have been born around 1607, Goupil grew up in Anjou, France. As a youth, Goupil felt called to religious life and sought entry into the Jesuits. He entered the novitiate in Paris, but was forced to resign, in the circumstances of that time, after he became deaf.

          Upon leaving the novitiate, René Goupil returned to his prior profession as a surgeon, working in Orléans. But he never lost his desire to unit himself with the work of the Jesuits. Through the publication of the Jesuit Relations, tales of the work of the Jesuit missionaries in North America were well known in France. Still in contact with Jesuits from his time in the novitiate, Goupil decided to join the missions as a donné. Unique to the North American missions, donnés were laymen who, by contract, committed to serve the Jesuit missionaries. Paid no compensation other than a promise to have their needs met by the Jesuits, these laymen participated in the work of the missions, looking only to God for their reward. Goupil arrived in New France, present-day Quebec, in 1640. Among other things, he served in a hospital there for several years, employing his surgeon skills to take care of the sick and wounded. Goupil may not have been able to fulfill his original desire of becoming a priest, but he saw an opportunity to love Christ through his service to the patients who needed his care.

          In 1642, Goupil met Isaac Jogues, who had returned from the Huron missions in order to obtain supplies and bring them back. Seeing an opportunity to serve through his medical knowledge, Father Jogues and Goupil petitioned for permission to have Goupil join the returning group. The request was approved. They reached Three Rivers in time for the feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola On August 2, 1642, Father Jogues, René Goupil, a number of Huron Christians, and several others, set out to finish their journey to Huronia. Their flotilla was ambushed by Mohawks near Lake St. Peter, and Goupil, Jogues and Guillaume Couture were taken prisoner. For thirteen days, the Mohawks transported their prisoners from village to village, torturing them, until finally arriving in the village of Ossernenon (present day Auriesville, New York).

          Goupil, like his fellow prisoners, suffered greatly, being beaten, having his fingernails torn off, and his finger cut off at the joint. Despite these ordeals, he tried to call attention to others, particularly aged Huron Christians who were with them, who needed help or protection from further violence. Knowing that death was near, Goupil asked Father Jogues if his original desire to be a Jesuit could be fulfilled and, with Father Jogues’ blessing, he took the vows of the order. In Ossernenon, the prisoners were paraded through a crowd of Mohawks, who scorned and beat them. Goupil was so disfigured that Father Jogues compared his appearance to that of Christ’s in Isaiah’s prophecies. Father Jogues and Goupil were then taken to the neighboring village of Andagaron where they were tortured again and awaited death. While in the village, Goupil blessed a Mohawk child with the sign of the cross, which was interpreted as an evil act. In response, one evening as Father Jogues and Goupil returned to the village from saying the rosary, Goupil was struck with a hatchet to the head. He fell to the ground and died while invoking the name of Jesus. Father Jogues would later write that it was September 29, 1642, when this “angel of innocence and martyr of Jesus Christ gave his life for Him who had given him His.”

          The next day, with the aid of an Algonquin who was also a prisoner, Father Jogues found the marred body of René Goupil, which had been dragged to a ravine after Goupil’s death. Father Jogues buried it underwater in the ravine, with the intention to retrieve the saint’s relics. But when he returned to do so, he could not locate the body again. Today, pilgrims can visit that ravine and the final resting place of Saint René Goupil at the Our Lady of Martyrs Shrine built on that site and dedicated to the witness to Christ of the North American Martyrs.