It was 100 years ago this month that the eight men who dedicated their lives in honouring God and their neighbour throughout their missionary work and would become known as the Canadian Martyrs were beatified, setting the stage for their canonization five years later.

The beatification took place on June 21, 1925, in a ceremony led by Pope Pius XI in Rome while 6,000 would gather near Midland, Ont., where these Jesuits — six priests and two laymen — ministered among the Wendat people of the region and beyond. Toronto Archbishop Neil McNeil would celebrate an open-air Mass for those gathered and a monument to them was unveiled at nearby Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons. 

This year also marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival in Quebec of one of the martyrs, St. Jean de Brébeuf, in what would become Canada. He would launch his missionary work with nomadic Innu before being sent to the traditional Wendat (Huron) territory near modern-day Midland, Ont., along Georgian Bay in 1626 where he would stay until 1629. He would then return to France only to come back to minister to the Wendat people again four years later. 

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Brébeuf remained in charge of the mission for four years, where he taught the Wendat language, customs and explored sharing the tenets of Christianity by acts such as translating Ledesma's catechism from French into Wendat and arranging to have it physically printed.

Brébeuf, along with his colleague Fr. Gabriel Lalemant, were eventually ritually tortured and martyred by the Iroquois in 1649 as they ministered to the Wendat people in a moment that would become a central symbol of the Jesuit commitment to the mission. It was only after their martyrdom that many Wendat would ask to be baptized into the faith. 

Other missionaries recovered the remains of Brébeuf and Lalemant and they were exhumed, cleansed, reduced to bones and placed in a chest as relics for veneration. The sanctified bones of Brébeuf and Lalemant were eventually transported from Sainte‑Marie I near the present-day Martyrs’ Shrine to the new mission at Sainte‑Marie II on Christian Island, and later to Quebec City.

Br. René Goupil, Fr. Isaac Jogues, Jean de Lalande, Fr. Antoine Daniel, Fr. Charles Garnier and Fr. Noël Chabanel were the six other Jesuit missionaries from Sainte-Marie among the Hurons who had met, or would meet, a similar fate. All were killed on various dates in the mid-17th century across Southern Ontario and upper New York State and are now widely known as the Canadian Martyrs. 

These two anniversaries will be celebrated at the second annual Martyrs' Shrine Spring Gala, to be held June 11 at Bellvue Manor in Vaughan, Ont., north of Toronto. Cardinal Francis Leo will a special guest among the hundreds of dignitaries and guests expected for the gala to support Martyrs' Shrine's centennial fundraising efforts.

“We are very excited to celebrate these anniversaries and more so to bring together all of the different people and parties from around the archdiocese and beyond. This is about the community of faith celebrating its history of faith in the country together,” said Fr. John O’Brien, director of Martyrs’ Shrine. 

O’Brien said it is hard to overstate the importance of this moment for Canadian Catholics, as the martyrs remain the only canonized martyrs of Canada and the United States to date.

“Their story often evokes a deep instinctive reaction. The heroism, sacrifice and love for Indigenous peoples resound powerfully across the ages, and take us back to a time when Canada was young and new, when it was possible to dream of a society of different peoples living together in harmony and peace,” he said. 

“This was the vision of the early Jesuit missionaries, and is perhaps still a story that can inspire contemporary Canada to recover its better bearings.”

O’Brien notes just what that initial missionary work from Brébeuf and his companions meant to Canada throughout history and up to the modern age. 

“ I think (Brébeuf’s) memory often boils down to the deep respect he had for the language and the culture of the Wendat people, whether it was him being the first to compose the first French-Huron dictionary or Canada's first Christmas Carol, the Huron Carol,” he said.

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“ People may not fully appreciate that he was not just a courageous missionary, but that he was also most definitely a mystic. He had an unusually deep and rich prayer life and even had dreams and visions of Jesus, Our Lady, the saints and most famously of a great Cross that appeared in the sky over Canada.” 

One year after the eight were beatified, Martyrs' Shrine was inaugurated and has continued to serve as the meeting ground for millions of pilgrims and visitors since. While the shrine intends to have a special Mass for the 100th anniversary of the martyrs' beatification on June 21, O’Brien says the upcoming gala will be the pinnacle celebration. 

“This is a time to show the real cross-section of the Church in Southern Ontario, all the many stakeholders and people who believe in the centrality of Martyrs’ Shrine as a hub of faith in our country,” he said. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, and therefore we believe this is holy ground, dare I say ground zero, for the renewal of the faith in our land."

Besides their relations with Canada's founding people, the martyrs have represented so much more to Canadians over the years, said O'Brien, witnessed by the experience of the more than 35 ethnic Canadian Catholic groups that typically make a pilgrimage to Martyrs' Shrine each year.

“During the Cold War decades, there was a strong affinity with the martyrs on the part of Canadians from Eastern Europe, who came in large numbers and prayed for their people suffering under Communism,” O’Brien said. 

“In more recent decades, large numbers of Canadians from Asian backgrounds have discovered the shrine and made it a pole of their faith, often linking the Canadian Martyrs to the martyr-saints of their home countries. They form the largest pilgrimage groups today.”

These multicultural pilgrimages will be recognized at the gala, as the interactive evening will provide guests with a Martyrs’ Shrine "passport" to be used when observing the various pilgrim stations set up throughout the venue. Cultures from around the world will be showcased as they sample appetizers from each country. 

Also offered will be online closed bid and live auctions, of which last year’s hot item, Taylor Swift tickets, were purchased for $13,000. While no pop music tickets are expected this year, O’Brien said Toronto Maple Leafs tickets will be up for grabs. 

“We’re offering tickets next season for that specific team because, well, we are both on a Pilgrimage of Hope,” he said through laughter. 

All proceeds will go towards preservation of the shrine. O'Brien said this fund will pay for upgrades to the infrastructure of the shrine, much of which dates back to its opening 100 years ago. 

“We have broken ground and begun upgrading the entire waterworks and septic system of the site, which is a rather big project that will take a few years. We are also planning to finish the building of a large lookout platform at the top of the hill of the site while we look to raise $40,000 for a new organ system for the church,” O’Brien said. 

O’Brien hopes the night will be one of fellowship amid a time of remembrance and appreciation for both the martyrs and early Wendat Christians. 

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“Today, we have a greater appreciation for the heroic Wendat or Huron Christians who embraced the faith freely, lived it faithfully and shared it widely with their own people. Many of them, too, were martyrs, and they were certainly the leaders of what we might call Canada’s early Church or first Christian community,” he said. 

For information and tickets, see martyrs-shrine.com.