392 THE MARTYRS. [164& 



favored, — " at least," says Ragueneau, " those which he could easily re- 

 member, for their multitude was too great for the whole to be recalled.'* 

 — "I find nothing," he adds, "more frequent in this memoir than the 

 expression of his desire to die for Jesus Christ : ' Senth me vehementer 

 impelli ad moriendum pro Christo.' ... In fine, wishing *to make himself 

 a holocaust and a victim consecrated to death, and liolily to anticipate 

 the happiness of martyrdom which awaited him, he bound himself by a 

 vow to Christ, which he conceived in these terms " ; and Ragueneau 

 gives the vow in the original Latin. It binds him never to refuse " the 

 grace of martyrdom, if, at any day. Thou shouldst, in Thy infinite pity, 

 ofier it to me. Thy unworthy servant ; " . ..." and when I shall have 

 received the stroke of death, I bind myself to accept it at Thy hand, with 

 all the contentment and joy of my heart." 



Some of his innumerable visions have been already mentioned. (See 

 ante, p. 108.) Tanner, Societas Militans, gives various others, — as, for ex- 

 ample, that he once beheld a mountain covered thick with saints, but above 

 all with virgins, while the Queen of Virgins sat at the top in a blaze of ^ 

 glory. In 1637, when the whole country was enraged against the Jes- 

 uits, and above all against Brebeuf, as sorcerers who had caused the 

 pest, Ragueneau tells us that " a troop of demons appeared before him 

 divers times, — sometimes like men in a fury, sometimes like frightful 

 monsters, bears, lions, or wild horses, trying to rush upon him. These 

 spectres excited in him neither horror nor fear. He said to them, ' Do to 

 me whatever God permits you ; for without His will not one hair will fall 

 from my head.' And at these words all the demons vanished in a 

 moment." — Relation des Hurons, 1649, 20. Compare the long notice in 

 Alegambe, Mortes Illustres, 644. 



In Ragueneau's notice of Brebeuf, as in all other notices of deceased 

 missionaries in the Relations, the saintly qualities alone are brought for- 

 ward, as obedience, humility, etc. ; but wherever Brebeuf himself appears 

 in the course of those voluminous records, he always brings with him 

 m impression of power. 



We are told that, punning on his own name, he used to say that he 

 was an ox, fit only to bear burdens. This sort of humility may pass for 

 what it is worth ; but it must be remembered, that there is a kind of act- 

 ing in which the actor firnily believes in the part he is playing. As for 

 the obedience, it was as genuine as that of a well-disciphned soldier, and 

 incomparably more profound. In the case of the Canadian Jesuits, 

 posterity owes to this, their favorite virtue, the record of numerous 

 visions, inward voices, and the like miracles, which the object of tliese 

 favors set down on paper, at the command of his Superior ; while, other- 

 wise, humility would have concealed them forever. The truth is, that, 

 with some of these missionaries, one may throw oflf trash and nonsense 

 by the cart-load, and find under it all a solid nucleus of saint and hero. 



