René Goupil

Saint René Goupil was born on May 15, 1608, and baptized in Saint-Martin-du-Bois near Angers in France. Trained as a surgeon in Orléans, he felt drawn to give his life to Christ in the service of souls. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in Paris in 1639, but worsening deafness forced him to leave. Undeterred, René offered himself as a lay missionary assistant to the Jesuit Fathers, arriving in New France in 1640. At the Saint-Joseph de Sillery Mission near Quebec, he quietly served the sick and wounded, tending their injuries with patience and charity. In 1642 he traveled with Father Isaac Jogues and others toward the Huron missions, but they were captured by the Mohawk and taken to Ossernenon in present-day New York. After enduring torture, René was killed for the faith on September 29, 1642, after teaching a child the sign of the cross. He is honored as the first canonized Catholic martyr in North America and is a patron of anesthetists. His feast day is September 29.