Christmas Songs And A Tortured Jesuit Priest

How history intertwines with differing perspectives

I listened to a choir last night and it was lovely to sit and let the harmonies tweak the repertoire of sounds that are possible in a melody.

The members of the choir ranged in age from early twenties to late thirties and they obviously enjoyed their craft. Everyone was dressed in black, but each one personalized their outfit in a unique way. The men wore different ties and some had a vest on while others did not.

• There was one man with a beard and shoulder-length hair. He reminded me of many young men from my youth as that was a popular style then; It seems it has returned. Long hair is more of a hipster look these days, different than the long-haired hippie from the sixties.
• One of the men had a bald head, completely shaved, which I think is a good option for men with partial baldness or thinning patches.
• One of the younger men had dark curly locks that fell below his ears and he was a happy vocalist, moving with the music as he played with his voice. He was featured in one of the songs, which was lovely to watch as well as to hear.

Two different conductors were leading the group. They alternated, each of them introducing their set by telling us something interesting about the composer or the history of the song.

One of them was The Huron Carol, which I have always loved; it is my favorite Christmas song. I didn’t know that it had been composed by a Jesuit missionary (Brebeuf) in the 1600’s. He wrote it in the Huron language (Wyandot).

It was set to the melody of a French song called A Young Maid. The song was lost when the composer died (more on that later).

The Huron people continued to sing it as part of their oral tradition for almost 150 years before it was translated into French and then later into English.

The current version was written in 1926 and is quite different from the Huron version as it was modernized to fit a nativity story.

• Father Brebeuf, the Jesuit missionary, lived among the Huron for 23 years.
• When a raiding party of Algonquin Indians attacked the Huron village, they tortured and killed him and another missionary. They were later made saints by the church and Brebeuf is one of the patron saints of Canada.
• I remember my grandmother reading an account of his torture from a book that told of the martyrdom of these two men.
• She read it all to me, including the gory graphic details. I must have been 8 or 9 at the time, and I remembered the name Brebeuf from the images she invoked.
• My grandmother was religious so she must have thought it was important for me to know all of the details of his martyrdom.

It was seriously gory.

• They made him wear a necklace of heated tomahawks, put him in boiling water, and then burned him at the stake.
• I remember her telling me that the raiding party of Indians was so impressed that he showed no signs of pain that they later ate his heart. I think it was a sign of respect for his bravery.

On reflection, this story of different cultures where a test of bravery and show of ultimate faith must have been terrifying and glorious for both peoples.

People on both sides of the interaction were only following what they believed.

If you enjoyed this story, have a look at my book, We Swallow Light. It’s an exploration of events in a past life and a refreshing take on overcoming pain and the joy of finding love.