Joseph
Chihwatenha
The
Forgotten Martyr
by
Clement
Anthony Mulloy, Ph.D.
+
Ad majorem Dei gloriam!+
-
©
Copyright 2001 Clement Anthony Mulloy, Ph.D.
421 East Prospect
Street
Fayetteville, AR
72701
- CMu9570287@aol.com
[Reprinted here with permission of author.]
“I
saw a pavilion or a dome descend from heaven and rest on the grave of
our Christian [Joseph Chihwatenha]. Then
it seemed to me that someone picked up the two ends of the pavilion,
drawing it upwards, as if to take it to heaven ... The vision continued
a very long time. I felt, at the time, that God wished me to understand
the state of the soul of that good Christian.”
St.
Jean de Brèbeuf, SJ
In
obedience to the decrees of Pope Urban VIII and the other Sovereign
Pontiffs the author declares that all the graces and other supernatural
facts related in this volume rest upon human authority alone, and that
in regard to such, as in the use of all terms and in the opinions
expressed, he submits himself without reserve to the infallible
judgement of the Holy Apostolic See.
One of the most
famous chapters in Church history is the heroic martyrdom of the French
Jesuit missionaries to North America. Saints like Jean de Brèbeuf and Isaac Jogues continue to inspire people
centuries later. But a story rarely told is that before the Jesuit
martyrs there was an Indian martyr. His name was Joseph Chihwatenha.
Working among an obscure tribe known as the Huron the Jesuits found
their greatest convert. A man who was to become the cornerstone of the
Huron Christian Church. He was a brave man who was persecuted for his
beliefs, but one who has been forgotten by history and by the Church
for which he died. When Joseph’s conversion and martyrdom are set
in their historical context then the sacrifices he made in order to
live openly as a Christian can be better understood.
At first the
Jesuit missionaries were greeted by the Hurons with a mixture of
emotions; fear, curiosity, awe, and, to some, love. But these initial
reactions soon yielded to another, suspicion. For the Hurons’
perception of the Jesuits was influenced by another strange arrival: a
deadly and highly contagious disease. This disease, which some have
identified as smallpox, swept through the Huron villages in a series of
epidemics between 1634 and 1640. The Huron looked on in horror,
helpless as his friends and family died a slow and painful death. At
the end of these six years over fifteen thousand people, approximately
half the Huron population, was dead.
The Hurons
naturally began to question who or what was the cause of this strange
disease. If the disease was due to natural causes the Huron believed a
prescription of natural remedies would always produce a cure. But if
the illness persisted then the illness must be of another more sinister
origin.
The natural
remedies the Huron concocted could not stop the disease, thousands
continued to die. It spread despite the time-honored treatments of
their most powerful medicine men. Having found no cure the Huron
concluded there could be only one cause. It was the cause that the
Huron feared the most; the disease must be the result of a powerful and
malignant witchcraft. Due to the nature of the disease, which was so
widespread and deadly, and due to the ineffectiveness of their
treatments, this was the only conclusion the Huron could make.
The natural
suspects were the newly arrived Jesuits. The Hurons asked one simple
question: “Why would these men so strongly desire to live with
us?” The Jesuits had endured great hardships just to reach their
land. What could be the purpose of such a vast undertaking? The Hurons
concluded that the Jesuits could have only one motivation; the majority
became convinced the Jesuits were practicing a powerful witchcraft with
which they intended to wipe out the entire Huron population. One of the
missionaries, Jerome Lalemant, wrote of this fear,
The
climax of it is, that the most intelligent among these poor
Barbarians, not being able to comprehend the object and motive that
have caused us to leave France and come so far, with so much difficulty
and labor, and not seeing us claim any profit or advantage from our
residence among them, conclude that we must, therefore, desire their
ruin, since we can only aim at some object of great importance in such
resolution.
The idea that the
disease was the result of a deadly witchcraft inflicted by the Jesuits
was encouraged by the leaders of Huron society. The medicine men, in
particular, knew they were losing credibility since they were powerless
to stop the spread of the disease. These shamans were held in great awe
for their supernatural powers and they were fearful the Jesuits would
undermine both their prestige and profitable position. The medicine men
were in a lucrative profession since the services they rendered,
whether healing the sick or predicting the weather, were not for free.
Many of the sick and suffering sacrificed all their possessions to the
medicine men in a desperate attempt to save their lives. The Jesuits
threatened to take over the leading roles in the community. They led a
revolution, a change in lifestyle, which threatened to displace both
the medicine men and the chiefs as the cultural leaders of Huron
society. Therefore, both the medicine men and the chiefs were allied in
spreading lies and misrepresentations about the Jesuits throughout the
Huron community.
Incriminating
evidence quickly accumulated against the Jesuits. The onset of the
disease seemed to coincide with the Jesuits’ arrival. And
wherever the Jesuits went, the disease followed. Father Lalemant was
forced to admit, “It has been remarked more than a hundred times,
that where we were most welcome, where we baptized most people, there
it was where they died the most: and in the cabins to which we were
denied entrance, at the end of a few days one saw every person
cured.” Even more incriminating, the Jesuits did not succumb to
the disease. While the Hurons were dying by the thousands not one
missionary died. Le Mercier remarked the Hurons did not fail to notice
this and “were astonished at it, and are still astonished every
day, saying in reference to us, ‘Those people are not men, they
are demons.’” In these circumstances it was easy to spread
the rumor that the Jesuits exercised control over the disease.
To defend
themselves against the “black magic” of the Jesuits, the
Hurons carefully watched the missionaries to discover what methods they
used to spread the pestilence. This gave rise to many theories. Many
believed the Jesuits kept a corpse in the chapel tabernacle and it was
this corpse which caused their people to die. Some said the life-sized
paintings the Jesuits had of Christ and the Virgin Mary were real
people and by merely looking at them one could catch the disease.
Others thought the sugar that the Jesuits gave to the sick was a way of
poisoning their victims.
Eventually,
everything associated with the Jesuits was thought to have a connection
with the plague. Even a clock the Jesuits brought with them from France
to try to impress the Hurons of their superior knowledge became a
source of suspicion. Initially, the clock was looked upon with great
wonder and curiosity. Many would come to the Jesuits’ cabin and
silently sit staring at the clock for much of the day just to hear it
chime on the hour. Now this “Demon of death” was thoughtto
spew forth the disease with every chime.
The paranoia
concerning the Jesuits reached such heights that Le Mercier wrote they
did not “dare to do any act — not even the most holy ones
—which is not suspected and mistaken for enchantments. If we
would either kneel down or say our office by the light of five or six
coals, those were precisely the acts of black magic by which we were
causing them all to die.” The paintings the Jesuits had showing
the torments of those damned to hell “represented to them nothing
more than what was happening to their sick people.” The Jesuits
were constantly watched, Le Mercier wrote, “Merely to see us walk
about, they thought we were engaged in some witchcraft.” One
missionary commented “even our slightest gestures and
motions” were suspected of witchcraft.
Ultimately, one
theory above all others gained prominence. The Hurons concluded the
primary way the Jesuits spread the disease was through the sacrament of
baptism. In a sense, the Jesuits became victims of their own cautious
methods. Generally the Jesuits were reluctant to administer this
sacrament, especially to healthy adults. They feared apostasy and
backsliding and wanted only sincere and authentic conversions. As a
result, the missionaries were very scrupulous in administering this
sacrament, sometimes requiring a trial period of several years before
allowing a convert to receive it. The potential convert had to prove
himself over a prolonged period of time before he was accepted into the
Church.
But this cautious
attitude was abandoned when it came to those near death. Under these
conditions, which were common during the years of the epidemic, there
could be no fear of backsliding. Moreover, the Church teaches that
baptism not only washes away original sin but all sin, and that the
baptized person is freed from the punishment of sin. Consequently, the
Jesuits believed that a newly baptized person who died soon after would
immediately go to heaven. The Jesuits who were reluctant to baptize a
vigorous healthy adult, were willing, even eager to baptize those on
the verge of death. In the beginning the Hurons considered baptism to
be similar to one of their rituals to heal the sick. But this positive
view quickly faded. Because so many of those baptized soon died, the
Indians began to see baptism as the kiss of death. The Jesuits added to
these fears by baptizing children in particular without their
parents’ permission. The parents, not realizing the
Jesuits’ intentions, concluded the Jesuits must have some
sinister motive. Baptism, far from being the gateway to the eternal
life, came to be viewed as the chief means by which the Jesuits sought
to destroy the Huron nation.
In these
circumstances, any Huron who desired to become a Christian and receive
baptism had to overcome two major obstacles. First, he had to
demonstrate his sincerity to the Jesuits over a prolonged period of
time before he would be accepted into the Church. Second, he underwent
a rite that his own culture considered fatal. To undergo such a rite
meant certain death. This was enough to test the conviction of any
potential convert.
But the potential
convert was faced with other obstacles. The Indians called upon
supernatural powers to defend themselves against the disease. These
powers were summoned by shamans or by the ceremonies performed by their
curing societies. All these efforts were condemned by the Jesuits. The
shamans were branded as “imps of Satan” and the healing
ceremonies were denounced as sinful attempts to invoke demonic spirits.
This opposition was seen by the Hurons as another element in the
Jesuits’ evil plot to destroy the Huron people.
The condemnation
of traditional medicine left the convert to the new religion in a
difficult situation. He was cut off from the customary ways his society
had devised to heal and cure the afflicted. He felt defenseless against
the disease’s onslaught as his friends and family died of an
inexplicable disease. Though the curing ceremonies seem futile, they
gave the Hurons a sense of security. He was also attacked by his own
community, many times his own family, for failing to take action
against the deadly disease. Failure to perform the traditional
ceremonies was perceived to guarantee its spread. A convert was viewed
by society as allied with the Jesuits and taking an active part in
“killing” his countrymen. He was a traitor who was
committing the most heinous of crimes.
It is this
historical background that the precarious position of the Christian
converts must be considered. In short, the Jesuits were believed to be
mass murderers and any converts to the new religion were their
accomplices. To break with his culture the convert needed a courage and
dedication of heroic proportions. It would not be too much to say that
this heroism matched even that of the Jesuits themselves.
Father Jean de
Brebeuf, who more than anyone understood the Huron mind, wrote in 1636,
“You might say that they are only waiting to see one of their
number take the dreaded first step, and venture to run counter to the
customs of the country.” The grip of Huron culture was strong and
the Christian way of life was thought to be too demanding. A Huron
chief told Brèbeuf, “My nephew, we have been greatly
deceived. We thought the Great Spirit would be satisfied with a house.
According to what I have heard, He asks a great deal more.”
A breakthrough
finally occurred with a man of great courage, willing even to sacrifice
his life for his newfound beliefs. His name was Joseph Chihwatenha. He
was about thirty-five years old at the time of his conversion. He was
not a wealthy man nor one of the chiefs of his community but he would
soon become the Jesuits’ greatest asset.
Joseph’s
desire to convert was sparked after hearing Father Brèbeuf’s sermon to the Hurons during their
great “Feast of the Dead.” Thereafter, Joseph became
increasingly interested in Christianity and his instruction soon began.
Eventually, Joseph fell ill to the epidemic. Fearing his death the
Jesuits asked if he wished to be baptized. Joyfully consenting, Joseph
was baptized on August 16, 1637.
For a period of
about ten months he and later his family were the only converts of his
village. He maintained the practice of the faith despite the climate of
suspicion and persecution in which he lived and the ostracism and
loneliness he endured. He and his family were openly mocked as
the“family of Believers.” Despite this he was the man who
dared to take the “dreaded first step.”
Just after his
conversion Joseph had a premonition of the trials he would undergo. The
missionaries taught that the Lord was accustomed to try his most
faithful servants through suffering. This caused great fear and
puzzlement in Joseph. Pleading with God, after reading the Book of Job
which he found most disturbing, Joseph said, “My God, I pray you,
do not make a trial of my faith; you know my most secret thoughts, you
know that it is in earnest I believe in you; alas! Do not afflict
me.”
The Jesuits found
Joseph to be more than just a simple convert. He helped them in every
way he could, traveling throughout the length of his country promoting
Christianity and closely identifying himself with the Jesuits despite
the likelihood that he could be linked to their nefarious activities.
Joseph would often accompany the Jesuits and give inspiring speeches
urging his countrymen to convert. On one such occasion Joseph gave a
talk at the Christmas midnight Mass. He spoke of how fortunate the
Hurons were to be chosen by God to receive his message at this moment
in history,
Ah,
my brothers ... what do these lights shining and sparkling in the
midst of the night mean, if not that he whose memory we are now
honoring has through his birth dissipated the shadows and the ignorance
of the world; having done this the first time so many centuries ago, he
is about to grant us today, for the first time in these centuries, the
same grace and mercy. There are purposes and reasons, which can only be
adored, for which he has not done this sooner; but it is a grace and a
favor toward us, which cannot be sufficiently estimated or
acknowledged, that his providence has arranged this blessing for our
country while we are still living.
Joseph fulfilled
the role of lay preacher as was common in the Middle Ages. Christians
and non-believers alike never seemed to tire of his oratory. This was
important in an oral culture such as the Huron for only with great
effort could the Jesuits reach the point where they could converse in
the Huron language, but it was still difficult for them to achieve the
eloquence and delivery which was necessary to keep the Hurons’
attention and persuade them to be Christians. For the Jesuits’
purposes the native language was limited because it lacked the words
and terminology to adequately describe Christianity. In this regard,
Joseph helped the Jesuits make progress. One of the missionaries noted,
“His sole recreation is to converse about the things of God,
which enables us to make great progress in the language, for he
pronounces distinctly and uses good words.”
Joseph was also
invaluable at the regular meetings the Jesuits formed to give
instruction. These meetings were question and answer sessions carried
out in dialogue form between Joseph and one of the missionaries. In
these dialogues Joseph played many different roles. One missionary
observed that “Joseph acts sometimes as objector, sometimes as
ignoramus, and sometimes the Doctor, he gives opportunity to our
Catechist to explain by Dialogue, and with more clearness, what
otherwise would be only half understood.” It was clear the
Jesuits credit the flowering of the Huron Church to Joseph,
Joseph
seems to have been the leaven of the Gospel that has made the
whole lump of this new Church of the Hurons rise ... he having been
everywhere present on the most suitable occasions, to make public
profession and to render an account of his faith and his conversion.
As Joseph had
feared his faith was soon put to the test. A short time after his
baptism the dreaded disease invaded his household. Many suspected a
link between his conversion and his diseased family. Normally, a shaman
would be invited and, it was believed, by chanting incantations and
wielding mystical powers a cure would be possible. But Joseph refused
to allow his family the benefits of Huron medicine. To those who saw a
connection between Joseph’s conversion and the disease this
refusal confirmed their initial impression. He was deliberately causing
the deaths of his closest relatives. Many from around the village and
even some in his own family attempted to force Joseph to abandon his
faith and permit these healing ceremonies. Despite the pressure, Joseph
held firm.
Joseph’s
conversion not only meant a rejection of Huron medicine but also
brought about a change in his attitude toward death and suffering. It
was one that was far removed from the traditional Huron outlook. One
missionary heard him say as his family lay ill, “I console myself
in the belief that God sees everything which takes place in my family;
I am not the head of it, God is; if he will that all die, who can
resist him?” His changed viewpoint gave him an explanation for
the seemingly senseless deaths to the young and innocent; “God,
foreseeing that a child will be bad if he becomes a man, anticipates
him with death, by an effect of his goodness which men do not
see.” Joseph’s new perspective was a distinct break with
his native culture that had no belief in an eternal life in paradise.
The traditionalists of Huron society, those who had rejected
Christianity and clung to their customs, feared death and willingly
sacrificed all their possessions in payment to their medicine men in a
vain attempt to escape the inevitable. As one Huron admitted to Brèbeuf during the height of the epidemic, “My
nephew, we do not know what we are doing. There is nothing we would not
do to preserve our lives.” Joseph began to realize that to the
Christian this life was a test, a temporary time of suffering to be
endured before the final reward. Compared to eternity this life was
like the blink of an eye.
When death came
to his family, especially to his beloved son Thomas, Joseph’s
faith did not falter. The Jesuits compared Joseph to Abraham offering
up his son Isaac. Joseph was overheard saying to his son,
“Thomas, mydear child, we are not the Master of thy life; if God
wish thee to go to Heaven, we cannot keep thee upon earth.”
Despite the death of his own son and the pressure brought against him
by his community Joseph never abandoned his faith.
The difficulty of
breaking with the mentality of his culture extended into other areas as
well. This was especially evident in the realm of dreams. In Huron
society dreams occupied a place of spiritual authority. Dreams were
thought to reflect hidden desires and failure to fulfill these
“desires of the soul” meant hardship and even death. The
Jesuits described dreams as the “God of the Huron” and as
an oracle that predicted future events. To run counter to the commands
of one’s dreams required a dedication that few Hurons were
willing to risk. To the modern the mystical world of the Huron can be
difficult to comprehend, but one must realize the powerful hold it had
on the Huron mind if one is to fully comprehend the difficulty of
conversion.
Because of their
perceived power, dreams were consulted for success in many endeavors.
For example, many Hurons looked for signs in their dreams to help them
in the hunt. “Those who have the best dreams here, ”one
missionary observed, “and believe what they dream, pass for
superior hunters.” In one hunting expedition Joseph ignored the
directives of his dreams. He came back empty-handed while the others
were successful. They attributed their success to the influence of
their dreams. The Jesuits record that Joseph had to endure
“considerable occasion for patience because his companions
indulged in cutting sneers about his belief.”
Success in
hunting can be considered a minor affair. But the Huron belief in the
power of dreams could lead to even greater coercion to abandon
Christianity and follow Huron traditions. Several years after his
conversion Joseph had a vivid dream in which he was attacked by several
Iroquois, the hated enemy of the Hurons. His dream foretold a grisly
death. He was to be scalped and his head split open. For death to be
averted tradition demanded a sacrifice in which a dog was offered as a
replacement. To disobey this warning from the spiritual world, Joseph
risked death. These warnings became frequent. The Jesuits record Joseph
originally had this dream a year before his death and that it was a
recurring one. On several occasions Joseph was heard upon suddenly
awaking as if responding to the threat on his life, “Art thou the
master of it? No, no it is only God who shall depose of it.” The
Jesuits believed Joseph was being tempted by the Devil to perform a
diabolical sacrifice to save his life and thereby subvert his faith.
Joseph was making a break with his culture that may seem minor but from
within his behavorial world he was putting his life in great risk.
Joseph’s
dream eerily predicted his ultimate fate. On August 2, 1640 Joseph was
murdered while working in the fields. Though the Huron chiefs claimed
Joseph had been killed by the Iroquois, modern scholars agree that the
evidence indicates Joseph was executed by his own people as a
“sorcerer.” The Hurons took his death as proof of the power
of dreams and, henceforth, conversions became more difficult.
Even without
warnings from the spiritual world Joseph was aware his life was in
great danger. He knew how his people dealt with those who were
suspected of practicing witchcraft. It was a widespread belief that
Joseph was in league with the Jesuits to destroy the country. His
activities on their behalf over the years could only further and deepen
this belief. The Jesuits quote him in 1637 saying defiantly, “Let
them come, let them come, let them burn me, and let them see if it is
in good earnest that I believe, or if it is only with my lips.”
Despite the threats, Joseph still lived openly as a Christian. In a
council held in 1640 Joseph boldly declared,
I
hear that they speak of me as of a man who is in league with the black
gowns. I wish them to know that I am allied with them, not to ruin the
country ... but to maintain the truths which they have come to announce
to us. I shall be happy to die for this reason; I am quite ready to be
burned for this cause.
Further evidence
that Joseph knew how his countrymen perceived him came during an
unsuccessful effort to convert his brother. Joseph said to him,
“the dread of death will never close my lips.” He was fully
aware of the danger he was in, saying to his brother, “The worst
that can happen to me, in your opinion, is that they may split my head,
as they do to the sorcerers of the country ... I should account myself
too happy to give my life for the one who has loved us so much.”
After
Joseph’s martyrdom, Jean de Brebeuf, who presided over the
funeral Mass and was Joseph’s close friend and confidant, had a
vision which seemed to confirm the state of Joseph’s soul. Brèbeuf wrote, “I saw a pavilion or a dome
descend from heaven and rest on the grave of our Christian. Then it
seemed to me that someone picked up the two ends of the pavilion,
drawing it upwards, as if to take it to heaven ... The vision continued
a very long time. I felt, at the time, that God wished me to understand
the state of the soul of that good Christian.”
Joseph was the
first martyr of the Huron Christian Church. He is a forgotten man now.
After his death the Jesuits rarely mentioned him. What is most
unfortunate is that this model convert who “preferred losing life
to losing the liberty of living openly like a Christian” has
never been recognized by the Church he died for.
Joseph’s
life was an example to all Christians. He faced
persecution for his conversion and was held personally responsible for
the deaths in his family and throughout his community. He was branded
as a traitor and a murderer. His conversion put him at odds with the
spiritual world in which he had been raised. He had no access to the
healing ceremonies of his people and he resisted the temptations of his
dreams. The hold of Huron traditions was strong and few had the courage
to break free. Given his background, the heroism of Joseph might even
have exceeded that of the Jesuits themselves. In order to live as a
Christian -- whether a seventeenth century Huron or a twentieth century
American -- means to resist the values of theworld. Each human society
has its own commonly accepted “self evident truths” that
few question. Christianity frequently runs against these truths. To run
counter to the climate of public opinion one risks criticism. This
frequently makes the Christian an outcast and one who is despised.
Joseph Chihwatenha by living his life against the dominant values of
his society set an example that all can learn by.
A
devout Catholic and accomplished artist has sculpted, in clay, an
exquisite representation of the Servant of God Joseph Chihwatenha. For
information contact the artist, Gregory F. Tardiff, P.O. Box 635,
Sylvan Beach, NY 13157-0635
Joseph
Chihwatenha
The
Forgotten Martyr
Clement
Anthony Mulloy, Ph.D.
-
©
Copyright 2001 Clement Anthony Mulloy, Ph.D.
-
-
421 East
Prospect Street
-
Fayetteville,
AR 72701
-
cmu9570287@aol.com
We
ask all who read this to pray for the eventual canonization of this
brave Huron Christian warrior.
-
Reprinted here
with permission of the author by:
-
-
Pilgrimage
for Restoration
-
-
c/o National
Coalition of Clergy & Laity
-
621 Jordan
Circle Whitehall, PA 18052-7119
-
tel
610/435-2634
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•
www.national-coalition.org
- http://pilgrimage.stblogs.com
- http://pilgrimage-for-restoration.org