René Goupil
Angevin surgeon, lay donné of the Jesuits, first of the Canadian martyrs — killed for a sign of the cross.
- Early modern era
- North America
- Feast day October 19
- 1608 – 1642
- Missionary
- Martyr
Listen to the life 0:42
A surgeon by trade, René Goupil had tried religious life with the Jesuits but had to give it up, his deafness preventing him; he sailed for New France as a donné, a layman bound to the mission's service without being a religious. He served two years at the mission of Saint-Joseph at Sillery, near Quebec, then left Trois-Rivières on 1 August 1642 for Huronia with Isaac Jogues: they were captured on the river a few days later. A prisoner of the Mohawk, he was seen tracing a sign of the cross on a child's forehead: it was taken for a spell, and a warrior split his skull with a hatchet. He was the first of the eight Canadian martyrs to die, and had pronounced his Jesuit vows in Jogues's hands a few days before.
