Saint Gabriel Lalemant was born in Paris and joined the Jesuit Order as a young man, with the intention of devoting his life to being a foreign missionary. In his case, the foreign mission turned out to be Canada, specifically Quebec, where he joined other Jesuits at various outposts among the Huron and Iroquois. The recipients of this conversion did not take kindly to the donors; Gabriel Lalemant was kidnapped, cruelly tortured, and burned to death. For his pains he was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930. He is among the pantheon known as the eight Canadian Martyrs.
