Jesuit missionary who sacrificed his life for the Christianization of North American Indians.
He entered (1624) the Society of Jesus at Rouen, France, was ordained in 1636 and was assigned to Canada.
For six years in the Huron lands near Georgian Bay he instructed and aided the Indians.
In 1641 he began the Jesuit missions to the Ojibwa tribe at Sault-Ste.-Marie. The following year warring Iroquois captured him, his companion René Goupil and a Huron band near Montreal and brought them to Ossernenon where Goupil was slain. Jogues was slaved for 13 months.
Aided by the Dutch of nearby Ft. Orange (Albany) he escaped down the Hudson River becoming the first priest to visit New Ansterdam (now New York City).
On Christmas of 1643 he reached France where he had been presumed dead. In 1645-46 he was sent by the government to Ossernenon to establish peace between the French and the Mohawk Indians. But when he arrived at Ossernenon the Mohawks accused him of witchcraft, murdered him and placed his head on a pole for public display.
In 1930 Jogues and seven other North American martyrs were canonized by Pope Pius XI, their feast day being September 26.
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