Charles Garnier

Who they were

Charles Garnier was born in Paris in 1606 and joined the Jesuits in 1624. He begged to be sent to Canada and sailed in 1636; he spent fourteen years among the Hurons without once returning to Quebec, and mastered their language in six months.

Neither distance, danger nor disease kept him from baptising and nursing the dying; his patience earned him the name 'lamb' of the mission. When the Iroquois attacked the village of St John in 1649, he went about encouraging his converts; mortally wounded, he dragged himself to a dying man to absolve him and was killed in that act of charity, on 7 December 1649.

The miracles

As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.

Why that counted as sanctity

A missionary who died giving absolution to a dying man.

Connected on this site

• Canadian Martyrs Saint
  “René Goupil was killed in 1642 at Ossernenon; Isaac Jogues and Jean de Lalande near today's Auriesville on 18 October 1647; Antoine Daniel in 1648; and Jean de Brébeuf, Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier and Noël Chabanel in 1649, during the war that destroyed the Huron nation and its missions.” — this site's research
• Jean de Brébeuf Saint
  “On 16 March 1649 Brébeuf was killed by the Iroquois, as were Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier and Noël Chabanel that year, about 200 km north of Toronto.” — this site's research
• Noël Chabanel Saint
  “In 1643 he was sent to Canada and worked among the Hurons with St Charles Garnier.” — this site's research