St. Jean de Brébeuf Poems

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St. Jean de Brébeuf
Saint Jean de Brébeuf (25 March 1593 – 16 March 1649) was a Jesuit missionary, martyred in Canada March 16 1649. Brébeuf was born on Condé-sur-Vire, Normandy, France, a son of farmers. He was the uncle of the poet Georges de Brébeuf. He studied near home at Caen allowing him to work on the family highway. He became a Jesuit in 1617, joining the Order. He almost was pushed from the Society due to his contraction of tuberculosis--an illness which prevented both studying and teaching for the traditional periods. [edit] Priestly Years In 1622 he was ordained. Against the voiced desires of Huguenot Protestants, officials of trading companies, and some Indians, he was granted his wish and in 1625 he sailed to Canada as a missionary, arriving on June 19, and lived with the Huron natives near Lake Huron, learning their customs and language, of which he became an expert (it is said that he wrote the first dictionary of the Huron language). He has been called Canada's "first serious ethnographer." Although the missionaries were recalled in 1629, Brébeuf returned to Canada in 1633. He was the founder of the Huron mission, a position he relinquished to Father Jérôme Lalemant in 1638.

the huron carol
 
 
’Twas in the moon of wintertime,
When all the birds had fled,
That mighty Gitchi Manitou... [read poem]
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