Replies

Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin is a new one to me. Have to read up on her. On the other hand, there were a number of early French explorer missionaries who came to what is now Indiana who attained the rank of saint ~ my favorite is Father Brebeuf ~ he met his end very nearly the way one of my Protestant ancestors ended his in Peru at the Hands of a new Governor from Spain a century earlier ~ to wit:

"On entering the village, they were met with a shower of stones, cruelly beaten with clubs, and then tied to posts to be burned to death.

Brébeuf is said to have kissed the stake to which he was bound. The fire was lighted under them, and their bodies slashed with knives.

Brébeuf had scalding water poured on his head in mockery of baptism, a collar of red-hot tomahawk-heads placed around his neck, a red-hot iron thrust down his throat, and when he expired his heart was cut out and eaten.

Through all the torture he never uttered a groan. The Iroquois withdrew when they had finished their work.

The remains of the victims were gathered up subsequently, and the head of Brébeuf is still kept as a relic at the Hôtel-Dieu, Quebec."

One does suppose I might have had family in that event too although it seems to me only the Mohawk ate hearts ~ so, probably not.

Life in early America was tough ~ really tough ~ and the people who came here to set up this great country were incredibly tough ~ and they stuck to their mission right down to the end.

Stories of their lives are worth reading and pondering.