St. Noel Chabanel

  Posted on December 24, 2018  by admin  No comments

Born: February 2, 1613 Saugues (Haute-Loire), France

Died: December 8, 1649 (aged 36) Sainte-Marie among the Hurons (Midland, Ontario, Canada)

Canonized: June 29, 1930, Rome by Pope Pius XI

Son of a notary, and one of four children. Entered the Jesuit novitiate in Toulouse, France on 8 February 1630. College teacher in Toulouse from 1632 to 1639. Ordained in 1641. Taught rhetoric at the college of Rodez. Noel, like many other Jesuits, felt a call to missionary work. Missionary to the Hurons in New France in 1643, arriving in Quebec on 15 August.

Father Noel had terrible trouble adapting to the mission fields. He could not grasp the languages of the natives, hated the food, never became comfortable with the living conditions, and was going through a period of spiritual dryness and trial. Deciding to go completely on faith, he vowed before the Blessed Sacrament that if necessary he would spend the rest of his life at the work. He survived a massacre of Christian Hurons by pagan Iroquois, and was leading a group of survivors to safety when he was murdered by an apostate Huron. One of the Martyrs of North America.