His ancestry seems to link him with William the Conqueror and St. Louis of France and even with the English Earls of Arundel. There is really very little we know of his immediate family. He was born near Saint-Lo, Normandy, and ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1622. In 1625 he arrived in the New World with the French explorer Samuel de Champlain. The tortures they endured are considered among the most hideous in the entire history of martyrdom.
H is memory is cherished in Canada more than that of all the other early missionaries.
His heroic virtues, manifested in such a remarkable degree at every stage of his missionary career, his almost incomprehensible endurance of privations and suffering, and the conviction that the reason of his death was not his association with the Hurons, but hatred of Christianity, has set on foot a movement for his canonization as a saint and martyr. An ecclesiastical court sat in 1904 for an entire year to examine his life and virtues and the cause of his death, and the result of the inquiry was forwarded to Rome. His feast day is October 19th. These reflect his own experience and a genuine sensitivity toward our people. You must love these Hurons, ransomed by the blood of the Son of God, as brothers.