ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 29th of September
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SAINT RENE GOUPIL, MARTYR
Saint Rene Goupil [René Goupil] was born on May 13, 1608 in Saint Martin in Anjou, France, the son of Hypolite Goupil and of Luce Provost. His baptism took place on May 15, 1608.
It is noted that Saint Rene formally studied surgery - rather than merely being one of the barber-surgeons of his time. On March 26, 1639, he entered the Society of Jesus in Paris, as a lay assistant (donné) rather than as a Jesuit, because of his progressing deafness - a note preserved in the archives of the Jesuits of Chantilly, near Paris, informs us that he had to discontinue his noviciate for this reason: "Renatus Goupil a tirocinio Parisiensi exclusus erat, quia surdaster."
The following year he offered himself to the Society for missionary work in Quebec, promising to obey the Jesuit superior, to receive no remuneration and live a celibate life.
Following his arrival in the New World, he spent the first two years as a surgeon in the hospital opened by the Sisters of Dieppe, taking care of sick and wounded Native Americans. Though obedient to his assignment, Rene wished to become actively involved in acquainting more souls with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Rene’s chance came when Fr Isaac Jogues showed up in Quebec in 1642, asking for assistants who were experienced in medicine. Although he was warned that the assignment would be tough and full of hardship, Rene was more than prepared to face all these dangers.
On August 1, 1642, they left Trois-Rivieres along with Fr Isaac Jogues, Guillaume Couture, and several Huron chiefs, among them Eustace Ahatsistari and Joseph Teondechoren, the latter’s niece, daughter of the famous Joseph Chihwatenha, and Therese Oionhaton, who had been trained in the practice of the Christian virtues by the Ursulines. This flotilla, which comprised 12 canoes and included about 40 persons, set out for the Huron country where Saint Rene was henceforth to follow his surgeon’s calling.
After a day’s journey up the St Lawrence River, their flotilla was unexpectedly ambushed by 70 Mohawk Indians, upon which all the travellers were forced to disembark and taken captive (on August 14). The Mohawks beat them on the face and head, and savagely bit out their fingernails and ground their forefingers with their teeth until they were formless masses. After enduring these tortures, Fr Jogues and Rene, taken as slaves by their chief, were treated as beasts of burden, having to perform very degrading tasks. A few days after their capture, Rene told Fr Jogues his deep desire to be a Jesuit and consecrated himself to God’s service. With their future now uncertain, Fr Jogues allowed him to pronounce the vows of the Society as a Jesuit brother. Rene was subsequently killed by being struck on the head with a tomahawk (on September 29, 1642) for making the Sign of the Cross. His complete body was never found. Some remains of his bones with the skull crushed were discovered by Fr Jogues several months later, which he buried. Fr Jogues wrote to his superior: "He deserves the name of martyr, not because he had been murdered by the enemies of God and His Church while labouring in ardent charity for his neighbour, but most of all because he was killed for being at prayer and especially for making the sign of the cross."
Rene Goupil is venerated as the first Jesuit killed for the Christian faith in Canada. He was beatified and canonised by Pope Pius XI along with the other North American martyrs. In 1951, American nurse anesthetists chose Rene Goupil as the patron saint of anaesthetists.
Sources: - https://www.jesuit.org.sg/sept-rene-goupil-sj/ - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8001198/ - https://mission.lmu.edu/stainedglass/saints/renegoupil/ - https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/goupil_rene_1E.html
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