Feastday: December 26
Father Noel Chabanel was one of the North American Martyrs. The murder of the missionaries and the havoc wrought amongst the Hurons, far from satisfying the ferocious Iroquois, only whetted their thirst for blood. Before the end of the year 1649, they had penetrated as far as the Tobacco Nation, where Father Garnier had founded a mission in 1641 and where the Jesuits now had two stations. The inhabitants of the village of Saint-Jean, hearing that the enemy was approaching, sent out their men to meet the attackers, who, however, having illicited from fugitives information of the defenseless condition of the settlement, took a round about way and arrived at the gates unexpectedly. An orgy of incredible cruelty followed, in the midst of which Garnier, the only priest in the mission, hastened from place to place, giving absolution to the Christians and baptizing the children and catechumens, totally unmindful of his own fate. While thus employed he was shot down by the muskets of an Iroquois. He strove to reach a dying man whom he thought he could help, but after three attempts, he collapsed, and subsequently received his death-blow from a hatchet which penetrated to the brain. Some of his Indian converts buried him on the spot where the Church had stood. Father Noel Chabanel, the missionary companion of Garnier, was immediately recalled. He had started on his way back with some Christian Hurons when they heard the cries of the Iroquois returning from Saint-Jean. The Father urged his followers to escape, but was too much exhausted to keep up with them. His fate was long uncertain, but a Huron apostate eventually admitted having killed the holy man out of hatred of the Christian Faith. Chabanel was not the least heroic of the martyrs. He possessed none of the adaptability of the rest, nor could he ever learn the language of the savages, the sight of whom, their food-everything about them-was revolting to him. Moreover he was tried by spiritual dryness during the whole of his stay in Canada. Yet in order to bind himself more inviolably to the work which his nature abhorred, he made a solemn vow, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, to remain till death in this mission to the Indians. Little did these noble martyrs who saw such scanty results accruing from their labors foresee that within a short time after their death, the truth they proclaimed would be embraced by their very executioners, and that their own successors would visit and Christianize almost every tribe withwhich the martyrs had been in contact. These martyrs of North American, Ss. John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues, Antony Daniel, Gabrial Lalemant, Charles Garnier, Noel Chabanel, Rene Goupil and John Lalande, were canonized in 1930. Their feast is observed throughout the United States and Canada and on December 26th, and on March 16th by the Society of Jesus.
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Noël Chabanel (February 2, 1613 – December 8, 1649) was a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, and one of the Canadian Martyrs.
Biography
Chabanel entered the Jesuit novitiate at Toulouse at the age of seventeen, and was a professor of rhetoric at several Jesuit colleges. He was highly esteemed for virtue and learning. In 1643, he was sent to New France along with Fathers Leonard Garreau and Gabriel Druillettes. Although he studied the Algonquin language for a time, he never made much headway. He was appointed to the mission at Sainte-Marie. In his apostolic labours he was the companion of Fr. Charles Garnier.
As he felt a strong repugnance to the life and habits of the Huron, and feared it might result in him withdrawing from the work, he bound himself by vow never to leave the mission except under obedience. Chabanel was sent to assist Jean de Brébeuf at the mission of Saint Louis (near the present day hamlet of Victoria Harbour), but was replaced by in February 1649 by Gabriel Lalemant. Chabanel was sent to help Charles Garnier among the Petun. One month later, Brébeuf and Lalemant were captured in an Iroquois raid on the St. Louis mission and taken to the nearby mission off St. Ignace where they were killed.
After the deaths of Brébeuf and Lalement, the Jesuits decided to abandon Sainte-Marie among the Hurons and burned the mission rather than risk it being desecrated or taken over by Iroquois. In early December 1649, Chabanel was directed to go to St. Joseph Island.
Chabanel was martyred on December 8, 1649, by what is described as a "renegade" Huron. There was a strong presumption that he was killed by the man who offered to carry him across. Father Paul Ragueneau, Provincial Superior, noted that Honarreennha was known to have believed and spread a false rumor that the French had betrayed the Huron and made a secret treaty with the Iroquois; and later admitted killing Chabanel.
Veneration
Noël Chabanel was canonized by Pope Pius XI on 29 June 1930.
