Brebeuf, Jean De

Brebeuf, Jean De a French Jesuit missionary in Canada, was born in Bayeux, March 25, 1593. He came to America with Champlain in 1626, and entered upon his mission among the Hurons, but was carried a prisoner to England in 1629. He returned in 1632, and prosecuted his labors among the Hurons and other tribes on the Niagara. In the wars between the Hurons and Iroquois he was taken prisoner, with his associate Lalemant, at the town of St. Louis, and put to death at St. Ignatius with the most cruel tortures, March 16, 1649. He acquired a thorough knowledge of the Indian language and a just appreciation of the Indian mind, and exerted a powerful influence among this people. He translated Ladesma's Catechisum into the Huron language. He wrote also the Huron Relation in the Jesuit Relations for 1635 and 1636. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.