St. Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church

The Greek word for endurance was "hypomeno," and its literal (etymological) meaning was to stay firm under. It could mean the firmness of a foundation that gives stability under a building. Or it could mean the firmness of someone who stands his ground when he is under attack. This is the kind of firmness so evident in the saints and martyrs.

The Martyrs of North America embodied this "endurance in hope" to the max. These pioneering French missionaries came to the "new world" out of motives differing sharply from most of their fellow Europeans. In fact, one of their first tasks in preaching the gospel to the Native Americans in eastern Canada and the eastern Great Lakes Region was convincing them that they had no interest at all in furs, skins, fish, and game, but only in teaching them about Jesus Christ.

They showed this by taking up residence with the Indians themselves, learning their languages (which was no easy task), and returning to their villages time and again, even after European politics (the British were actively trying to wrest Canada from the French) repeatedly forced them to return to European settlements. Their ability to sacrifice every material comfort and reward, to put their hopes in God alone, was the precondition for bringing Christ to these souls.

But it didn't stop there. Besides living in filthy huts, traveling by canoe through dense wilderness (whenever they took a trip they had to carry their canoes and other supplies across pathless land bridges as often as they were able to paddle through clear waters), and putting their lives in continual danger by tending the chronic illnesses (mostly due to pestilence) suffered by the people they were serving, they each ended up being taken prisoner, tortured, and brutally killed by enemies of the faith.

Few of us will face such grueling physical challenges as we try to fulfill our Christian mission, but we will all need the support of supernatural endurance - and only Christian hope can provide it. Just when their years of missionary work among the Huron (and some other tribes) began to produce a steady stream of baptisms and sincere conversions (they even started a seminary for young Indians), inter-tribal violence broke out.

The Iroquois renewed an old war against the Huron. Added to the long-standing tribal rivalry was a new suspicion, kindled by their superstitious and magical religious practices that certain recent natural disasters (plagues and famines) were due to the incursion of this new Christian religion. Thus the missionaries became prime targets in the war effort.

As the fierce Iroquois attacked village after village, these Jesuit priests and lay brothers encouraged the Christian Huron to hold fast to the faith, and baptized many of their catechumens just before the slaughter began. Consequently, they themselves were eventually captured. Even as they were being tortured, they continued to preach the Good News.

St. John de Brebeuf, for example, was tied naked to a pole, awarded a necklace of red hot spearheads, and girdled with a belt of burning pitch and resin. With his face set like stone, he began to speak to his captors about the heavenly kingdom. At that point they gagged him, cut off his nose, tore off his lips, and performed a mock baptism by pouring boiling water over his head. Only years later did the blood of martyrs like St. John yield its results: almost all of the tribes they had ministered to were eventually won over to the faith.

Few of us will face such unspeakable physical tortures as we try to fulfill our Christian mission, but we will all need the support of supernatural endurance - and only Christian hope can provide it.