Gabriel Lallemant

Gabriel Lallemant

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Gabriel Lallemant

Saint Gabriel Lallemant (October 3 1610 – March 17, 1649) was a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, and one of the eight Canadian Martyrs. He is a patron saint of Canada.

In 1630 he joined the Jesuits and in 1632 took the vow to devote himself to foreign missions. Despite the vow, he spent 14 years in France before coming to Canada. He taught at the Collège in Moulins from 1632 to 1635. He was at Bourges from 1635 to 1639 studying theology and then taught at three different schools before arriving in Quebec in September, 1646.

Little is known about his stay in Quebec but in September, 1648 he was sent to Wendake as a missionary and assistant to Father Jean de Brébeuf. He had only been at the mission for six months when he was captured by the Iroquois along with Brébeuf. He was taken to St Ignace and tortured before he too was killed on March 17, 1649.

Lallemant, born at Paris, France, was the nephew of former Sainte-Marie superior Jérôme Lalemant. At the time of Gabriel's death, his uncle was the superior of Jesuits in Canada. In 1650, he venerated the remains of Jean de Brébeuf and Jérôme Lalemant in Quebec.

Lallemant was canonized by Pope Pius XI on 29 June 1930.

His last moments are recorded as follows:

"At the height of these torments, Father Gabriel Lallemant lifted his eyes to Heaven, clasping his hands from time to time and uttering sighs to God, whom he invoked to his aid." [He] "had received a hatchet blow on the left ear, which they had driven into his brain, which appeared exposed: we saw no part of his body, from the feet even to the head, which had not been broiled, and in which he had not been burned alive, ? even the eyes, into which those impious ones had thrust burning coals."

His surname may be spelled either Lallemant or Lalemant by different references.