The Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States brought its tour of the relics of missionary priest St. Jean de Brébeuf to the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center in Lincoln Feb. 28. The tour features the skull of Brébeuf, one of the North American Martyrs.
Several hundred people stood in line to kneel before the relic and to pray and touch treasured articles of faith to the case holding the skull.
Father Eric Immel, vocation promoter for the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus, is traveling with the skull throughout its stops in the Midwest. He talked with Dennis Kellogg, director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, about the saint, the importance of the relic and the impact it has already had during the tour. What follows is an edited version of that interview.
Dennis Kellogg, Southern Nebraska Register: St. Jean de Brébeuf is one of the North American Martyrs. Tell us a little more about this saint.
Fr. Eric Immel, vocation promoter, Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus: Brébeuf is a Frenchman born in Normandy in 1593.... He was sent to go to what we now call Canada, what was then New France. His arrival took 3,300 miles of journey across the sea. He was told, even then, to prepare for death at any moment. It was a terrible journey.
When he arrived in Quebec, they knew of a people, the Huron people, that they believed would be amenable to their presence. And so he made an additional 800-mile journey into the middle of the Canadian wilderness and began his work of evangelization. He spent 19 years total there....
Some of the remarkable things that he did in his ministry, number one, he baptized, according to our records – and the Jesuits kept very good records back then – 7,000 people, which is notable. He also was one of the first Jesuits to master the Huron language. He helped them compile a dictionary and introduced the written language of what was otherwise a spoken language only. He translated different catechetical texts into Huron as well. He really was someone who was committed to enculturation and assimilation... He eventually became a beloved member of that community.
SNR: You said traveling with a skull and putting the skull on display for veneration could be considered “grotesque” and “disturbing.” But there’s a reason that we do that. Can you talk more about the veneration of relics and why they’re important?
Fr. Immel: The skull, or the other relics of the saints that we venerate, are a way for us to be inclined to learn about their lives again, and to remind ourselves of the story and the witness of their faith.
But beyond just the material of relics, there is a deep theological reality unfolding when we consider our teaching about the communion of saints, the great cloud of witnesses, that we believe are joined with God forever in eternity in their souls, and who will be resurrected in a glorified corporeal body. So to be in the presence of a piece of their earthly body, is to be in the presence of someone who now we believe is assured of fullness of life forever with God. And there’s something just utterly magical and mystical about that.
So yeah, (when) you see a human skull, when you see a piece of a rib or a fibula, or even in many cases of relics, just a small shard of bone or a tooth... it’s very earthy, and it’s very raw. And it can be – and I think should be – disturbing, especially when we confront the deaths of martyrs. But to be in their presence is to remember that story and to stand witness to someone who is very close to Jesus, it’s Eucharistic; it’s rooted in the resurrection. And I think it’s worth our time. I also think that it’s a great tradition of our Church that might be gaining some steam again. So I’m happy to be a part of reintroducing people to this experience of praying with relics.
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SNR: Are there stories of people who have been impacted by this skull either on this tour or before the tour?
Fr. Immel: There are simple and beautiful witnesses: mothers bringing their infant children to pray before the relic. We’ve met kids who have taken the name of St. Jean de Brébeuf as their confirmation saint. I met a young man named John Isaac, whose patrons are Jean de Brébeuf, and Isaac Jogues (another of the North American Martyrs).
And then beyond that, we have a very simple plastic bin filled with thousands of intentions that people have been bringing forward. Some of them are deep and rooted in the woundedness of these people: for healing, for conversion, for clarity or courage and vocation. But then also, it’s delightful because little kids have been coming. And I helped a little girl last night spell the word “marshmallow” because that’s the name of one of her pets, and she wanted to commend her pet to the intercession of Jean de Brébeuf.
I don’t know exactly the story, but we did receive word that a woman who was experiencing chronic pain came and venerated the relic a couple of weeks ago, and then a Jesuit received a call the following morning from this woman, and she claimed that she was no longer in pain. Those healing miracles that we believe so deeply, and may be unfolding in real time as this relic tour continues, are just a beautiful thing, and in many ways, a miraculous thing to witness.
SNR: You made a comparison between St. Jean de Brébeuf’s brutal death and the Eucharistic sacrifice. Can you tell us about that?
Fr. Immel: His death was brutal, there is no way around it. It involved things like a mockery of his baptism by the pouring of boiling hot water over his head three times.... Brébeuf withstood this torture, first with a stoicism and then with some strength and courage from… Jesus. He began to pray for his torturers. He began to seek their repentance to forgive them. And that, as you can imagine, made them angry. And so they cut off the lower part of his jaw with a hatchet, and they cut out his tongue so he could no longer speak words of praise to Jesus.
And then as an act of final blow, as they dismembered him, they took out his heart and they consumed it. Now, he was the adversary of these people who ended his life, and yet through his witness, through his love of the people that he was called to serve and his strength and his courage, they wanted some of that for themselves. And they believed that by eating his heart, they would be fortified with his virtues, his courage, his strength, his love.
And so we see a parallel to that in the Eucharistic sacrifice, because just like Christ on the cross, Brébeuf endured a brutal torture. And through our ancient prayers, through our Eucharistic belief, simple gifts of bread and wine become the real presence of Jesus’ Body and Blood. And then we consume that Body and Blood and we, in our theology, teach that we become what we receive, that we become more and more authentically and truly the Body of Christ and we carry ourselves and that holy Body out into the world to transform it with love.
So I hope that you see the parallel between the death of Brébeuf and the Eucharistic sacrifice. It’s quite a beautiful way of thinking about the value and the merit and the grace of his martyrdom.
SNR: St. Brébeuf took a vow of martyrdom. He was ready to die for the people he loved, his faith and for God. You said we are called to do the same.
Fr. Immel: We are. It’s hard to imagine that most Catholics today, especially in the United States, would ever be at risk of martyrdom. But I think that we can all and we are all called to pray to do the will of God, to do the will of Jesus. And that might mean something scary for us – to face illness in our families, or to wonder “how, with another child on the way, I’m ever going to pay for this?” Or if someone who is young, considering the possibility of religious life.
Well, isn’t it just true that we can never really know for sure?... We may not be called to red martyrdom, to a brutal death like Jean de Brébeuf. But we’re all called to do something great and we’re all called to be people of fortitude. And so in our own ways, we have an opportunity to do that, to see our own lives somehow linked with the lives of these great men who came before us.
Watch the full interview with Father Eric Immel about the skull of St. Jean de Brébeuf on the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln YouTube channel, and subscribe for more Catholic videos.
