St. Isaac Jogues and St. Francis Xavier Against Invincible Ignorance and on the Necessity of Baptism

By Brother Peter Dimond, O.S.B.

Source: vaticancatholic.com

In this work on Outside the Catholic Church There is No Salvation and the necessity of the Sacrament of Baptism, I could not leave out a section on the incredible lives of two of the most illustrious missionaries in Church history, St. Isaac Jogues (17^th century missionary to the North American Savages) and St. Francis Xavier (16^th century missionary to the Far East).  The trials of St. Isaac Jogues in bringing the Gospel to the North American heathen, and the incredible success of St. Francis Xavier in bringing the Gospel to India, Japan and the areas thereabout, are simply amazing.  But what is most obvious about both of their lives is that the exact same sentiments and belief animated them in regard to the heathen to whom they journeyed.  They were both absolutely convinced that all the heathen men and women without exception who died without knowledge of Jesus Christ would not be saved and would be lost forever.  It is, in fact, impossible for a sincere person to read the lives of these missionaries and still believe in the idea of salvation for the “invincibly ignorant,” simply because their lives illustrate most profoundly the undeniable teaching of the whole of Catholic Tradition that all the souls who die ignorant of the Gospel and the principal mysteries of the Catholic Faith (the Trinity and the Incarnation) are lost.  Any idea that these souls could be saved ignorant of Christ was a foreign world to them, a perverted and corrupted view of the supernatural world.  If they had believed in “invincible ignorance” they never would have done what they did.

In their lives we also find remarkable occurrences relating to people receiving the Sacrament of Baptism, occurrences which demonstrate again the truth of the dogma received from Jesus Christ Himself: Unless a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God (John 3:5).  We will now look at some different occurrences and quotes from their lives.

ISAAC JOGUES AGAINST INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE

St. Isaac Jogues and his companions were preaching the Gospel to the most savage of the North American heathen in the areas of Canada and New York.  In trying to bring the Gospel (the Catholic Faith) to this kind of heathen, Isaac Jogues and his companions braved incredible hardships and risked capture and mind-boggling tortures at the hands of the savages.  And this is exactly what happened when St. Isaac Jogues, St. Rene Goupil and companions were captured by the Iroquois savages on a missionary journey in 1642:

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, pp. 219,221: “The executioners chose Rene Goupil as the next victim.  They sawed off the thumb of his right hand with an oyster shell.  So much blood spurted out that they feared he would die [they wanted to torture him more or trade him]… Then they turned to Couture… They pricked him with awls and pointed stakes, carved off shreds of his flesh, burned him with firebrands and glowing irons, until he fell lifeless under their cruelties… One of them discovered [later] that two of Couture’s fingers had been left intact… Towering with rage… he began to saw off the index finger of his right hand with the ragged edge of a shell.  He pressed down with all his might on the flesh and tore it, but he could not sever the tendons… Frenzied, he gripped the finger and twisted it until he tore it out, dragging with it a tendon as long as the palm.”[1]

But why did St. Isaac Jogues and his companions feel compelled to subject themselves to the possibility of falling into the hands of these savages?   What was the point?  The answer is that they knew that there was no such thing as “salvation for the invincibly ignorant.”  They knew that if these savages didn’t come to know Jesus Christ and the Trinity (the Catholic Faith) and get baptized they would be eternally lost without any doubt.

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 197: “They tore Ondessonk [St. Isaac Jogues] away and beat him with insane fury, with clubs and muskets, about the head and shoulders, until he sank to the earth.  They kicked him and jumped on him till he was insensible.  The four Iroquois passed on, but others took up the bloody revenge.  Two younger men, especially, grasped his arms and clenched the nails of his forefingers in their teeth.  They tugged and yanked till they drew the fingernails from their sockets.  They took each of his forefingers in their mouths and ground and crushed them with their teeth until the fingers were a jelly of blood and flesh and splinters of bone.”[2]

St. Isaac Jogues and his companions were subjected to many other things, including mind-boggling cold:

St. Isaac Jogues: “Indeed, under the influence of that terrific hate of the savages, I suffered beyond telling from the cold, from the contempt of the basest of them, from the furious ill temper of the women… Great hunger, also, I had to endure.  Since nearly all the venison, and on the hunt they eat scarcely anything else, was offered in sacrifice to the demons, I spent many days without eating… I suffered greatly from the cold, in the midst of the deep snows, with nothing to wear but a short and threadbare cloak…Though they had plenty of deerskins, many of which they were not using, they would give me none.  Sometimes, on an extremely bitter night, shivering from the cold, I would take one of the skins secretly; as soon as they discovered it, they would rise up and take it away from me.  That shows how terribly much they hated me… My skin was split open with the cold, all over my body, and caused me intense pain.”[3]

Yet, after all this, St. Isaac Jogues still refused to escape from these savages when at first he had the opportunity!  He wanted to stay and baptize infants who were dying, and instruct and baptize the heathen adults who would listen.  Why?  If he had left the people, surely those who were sincere would have been saved for being ignorant “through no fault of their own,” right?  After all, it wouldn’t have been their fault if Isaac Jogues said that he couldn’t endure this any longer.  No!  St. Isaac knew that there was no salvation for them without the presence of the baptizing Church and knowledge of the Catholic Faith.  The following quote is one of the most interesting that one will ever see against the heretical idea of salvation for the “invincibly ignorant.”

St. Isaac Jogues: “Although, in all probability, I could escape [from the Iroquois] either through the Europeans or through the other savages living around us, if I should wish it, I decided to live on this cross on which Our Lord had fixed me in company with Himself, and to die with His grace helping me… Who could instruct the prisoners who were being constantly brought in?  Who could baptize them when they were dying, and strengthen them in their torments?  Who could pour the sacred waters on the heads of the children?  Who could look after the salvation of the adults who were dying, and after the instruction of those in good health?  Indeed, I believe that it happened not without a singular providence of the Divine Goodness, that I should have fallen into the hands of these very savages… These savages, I must confess, unwillingly and reluctantly have thus far spared me, by the will of God, so that thus through me, although unworthy, they might be instructed, they might believe, and be baptized, as many of them as are preordained for eternal life.”[4]

Could any statement from a Saint refute the heresy of salvation for the “invincibly ignorant” better?  St. Isaac knew that those heathen who did not come to know the Catholic Faith and get baptized simply were not preordained for eternal life.

Romans 8:29-30- “For whom He foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son: that he might be the first-born amongst many brethren.  And whom he predestinated, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

As Catholics, of course, we don’t believe as the heretic John Calvin, who held a predestination according to which no matter what one does he is either predestined for heaven or hell.  That is a wicked heresy.  Rather, as Catholics we believe in the true understanding of predestination, which is expressed by St. Isaac Jogues and Romans 8 above.  This true understanding of predestination simply means that God’s foreknowledge from all eternity makes sure that those who are of good will and are sincere will be brought to the Catholic faith and come to know what they must – and that those who are not brought to the Catholic faith and don’t know what they must were not among the elect. 

There is another interesting story in Jogues’ life which confirms this.  After having much success in converting people in various places, he and his companions began to be shut out from all the villages in a certain section of the heathen savages.  The Devil had convinced the heathen savages in this area – and the idea was spreading – that the presence of the missionaries was the reason why there were famine and disease among them.  So, being totally exhausted and shut out from every hut in the area, and freezing from the cold and dying for a place to rest and warm themselves, we pick up the story:

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, pp. 145-146: “…wandering about from place to place, and everywhere meeting with blows and threats and hatred, Jogues and Garnier came to a little cluster of cabins in the heart of the hills.  They were both exhausted by the terrible exposure to the cold and by the lack of food.  They forced themselves upon one of the cabins and were grudgingly received.  Jogues felt feverish and sick through all his body.  He could not move from his mat.  Then came a messenger from one of the villages in which they had been welcomed on their entry into the Petun land.  The runner told them that some of the people who were sick were begging them to return.

“It was a call from God.  They could not but heed it.  In order to complete the journey of thirty-five miles by daylight, they started out about three o’clock in the morning.  All the country was pale with snow in the dawn, and the mountain air was painfully cold.  Jogues was still gripped by the fever and unsteady on his legs.  They slid their snowshoes laboriously over the crackling crust of the icy snow.  Frequently, they stopped for breath in deadly exhaustion.

“But they had to shorten their rests, for fear lest they die of the cold.  Their only food, a lump of corn bread about the size of the fist, was hard as ice.  They arrived at the village late at night, covered with sweat and yet half-frozen, they said.  The sick persons were still alive.  They were baptized.  ‘Some souls gone astray here and there, who are placed on the road to heaven when they are just about to be swallowed up in hell,’ was their comment, ‘deserve a thousand times more than these labors, since these souls have cost the Savior of the world much more than that.’”[5]

As St. Isaac Jogues says, he knew that if he did not reach these people, instruct them and baptize them they would be “swallowed up in hell.”  That is why he forced himself at the very moment he had just found a bit of rest and warmth to make the thirty-five mile trip, though he was starving, freezing and exhausted – a trip which almost killed him.  There is another interesting story which illustrates the same truth.

“When dawn trickled through the firs, they [Jogues and Garnier] struck out along the trail, now blanketed with snow.  Some distance on, beyond a clear field, they noticed a few cabins.  The families, they found, were just abandoning their huts and were going to the nearest Petun village, for they had neither corn nor any other food… They [Jogues and Garnier] attached themselves to the band and traveled all the day… ‘We had no special plan to go to this village [which we named] St. Thomas rather than to any other,’ they remarked ‘but since we had accepted what company the savages offered, and since we followed them there, there is no doubt but that we arrived where God was leading us for the salvation of a predestined soul which awaited nothing but our arrival in order to die to its earthly miseries.’  They had finished their supper and were conversing with their hosts, when a young man entered and asked the Blackrobes to visit his mother who was sick.  ‘We go there,’ they exclaim, ‘and find the poor woman in her last extremities.  She was instructed, and happily received, with the Faith, the grace of Baptism.  Shortly after that, she [died and] beheld herself in the glory of heaven.  In that whole village there was only that one who had need of our help.”[6]

FRANCIS XAVIER AGAINST INVINCIBLE IGNORANCE

St. Francis Xavier was arguably the greatest missionary in Church history after the apostle Paul.  He was responsible for the baptism of millions in the Far East.  Like St. Isaac Jogues, he was firmly convinced of the Catholic truth that there is no such thing as “salvation for the invincibly ignorant.”

St. Francis Xavier, Dec. 31, 1543: “There is now in these parts [of India] a very large number of persons who have only one reason for not becoming Christians, and that is that there is no one to make them Christians.  It often comes into my mind to go round all the Universities of Europe, and especially that of Paris, crying out everywhere like a madman, and saying to all the learned men there whose learning is so much greater than their charity, ‘Ah! What a multitude of souls is through your fault shut out of heaven and falling into hell!’… They labor night and day in acquiring knowledge… but if they would spend as much time in that which is the fruit of all solid learning, and be as diligent in teaching the ignorant the things necessary to salvation, they would be far better prepared to give an account of themselves to our Lord when He shall say to them: ‘Give an account of thy stewardship.’”[7]

Here we see that St. Francis Xavier is saying that these ignorant heathen in India would easily become Christians if there were someone to instruct them, and yet they are still going to go to Hell if they don’t hear about the Faith!  This totally eliminates the idea of salvation for the “invincibly ignorant” or salvation by “implicit baptism of desire.”

St. Francis Xavier, Jan. 20, 1545: “Since your Highness [King John III of Portugal] well understands that God will require of you an account of the salvation of so many nations, who are ready to follow the better path if any one will show them it, but meanwhile, for want of a teacher, lie in blind darkness, and the filth of the most grievous sins, offending their Creator, and casting their own souls headlong into the misery of eternal death.”[8]

Here again we see St. Francis Xavier eliminating any idea of salvation for “the invincibly ignorant,” excluding from salvation even those ignorant souls whom he thought would embrace the Faith if they were taught it!

St. Francis Xavier, May, 1546: “In this island of Amboyna the heathen are far more numerous than the Mussulmans [Muslims], and there is a bitter hatred between the two… If there were people here to teach them the true religion, they would join the fold of Christ without much difficulty, for they have less objection to the name of Christ than that of Mahomet… I write all this to you at so much length that you may share my solicitude, and conceive, as is only right, an immense sorrow at the miserable loss of so many souls who are perishing daily, utterly destitute of aid.”[9]

St. Francis Xavier, Jan. 28, 1549: “I intend to write what I have found, not only to India, but to the Universities of Portugal, of Italy, and above all of Paris, and admonish them, while they are devoting themselves heart and soul to learned studies, not to think themselves so free and disengaged from responsibility as to take no trouble at all about the ignorance of the heathen and the loss of their immortal souls.”[10]

St. Francis Xavier, Jan. 29, 1552: “Nothing leads me to suppose that there are any Christians there [in China]…if the Chinese accept the Christian faith, the Japanese would give up the doctrines which the Chinese have taught them… I am beginning to have great hopes that God will soon provide free entrance to China, not only to our Society, but to religious of all Orders, that a large field may be laid open to pious and holy men of all sorts, in which there may be great room for devotion and zeal, in recalling men who are now lost to the way of truth and salvation.”[11]

In all of these quotes we again see that St. Francis Xavier, like St. Isaac Jogues and all of the saints, totally rejected the heretical idea that souls who are ignorant of the Gospel can be saved.

ISAAC JOGUES ON THE NECESSITY OF WATER BAPTISM

In the life of these extraordinary missionaries, we also find many quotes and instances which confirm the absolute necessity of water baptism for salvation.  As in the life of the great missionary Fr. De Smet, both men saw the remarkable occurrence that many of the people that they would reach to baptize would die almost immediately after.  They clearly saw this as a sign that God had preserved the lives of these people until they were able to receive that most necessary sacrament.

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 92: “Then, most of all [the heathens concluded], the Blackrobes caused people to die by pouring water on their heads; practically everyone they baptized died soon after.”[12]

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 136: “Fr. Lalemant [one of Jogues companions and superiors] confesses: ‘It happened very often, and has been remarked more than a hundred times, that in those places where we were most welcome, where we baptized most people, there it was, in fact, where they died most.  On the contrary, in the cabins to which we were denied entrance, although they were sick to the extremity, at the end of a few days one saw every person prosperously cured.’”[13]

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, pp. 97-98: “[St. John] De Brebeuf and Jogues waited for the hysteria to pass.  They had the consolation of baptizing a few souls and sending them to God.  One was a squaw [an Indian woman] who had resisted all their attempts to talk to her until just before her end, when she begged to be baptized.  Another was a young brave who eagerly wished for baptism, but whose relatives guarded him against the approach of Echon [De Brebeuf] and Ondessonk [Jogues].  De Brebeuf waited until the relatives were absent from the cabin and then poured the saving waters on his head a moment before his mother-in-law returned to prevent him.”[14]

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 142: “There is hardly any corn in this village of Ehwae, and nevertheless, almost every day some Attiwandarons arrive, bands of men, women, and children, all pale and disfigured… Fleeing from the famine, they here find death; rather, here they find a blessed life, for we see to it that not one dies without baptism.  Among these people was a little child about one year old, which looked more like a monster than a human being.  It was happily baptized.  God preserved its life only by a miracle, it would seem, so that it might be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ and might bless His mercies forever.”[15]

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 279: “… in February he walked the six miles to the nearer town, where the Mohawks were holding their winter festival and games… he wandered through the cabins, searching for the sick and for those affably inclined.  In one lodge he discovered five babies, all dangerously ill.  He baptized them, without attracting notice, and three days later, says Fr. Lalemant, ‘he heard that these little innocents were no longer in the land of the dying [they were dead].  What an admirable stroke of predestination for those little angels.”[16]

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 199: “Rene called Father Jogues’ attention to one of the old men [an Indian who was captured with them]… The man had not yet been baptized, and it might possibly happen that he would be the victim chosen by the Iroquois as a blood sacrifice before they left the camp.  Ondessonk [Fr. Jogues] persuaded the old man to accept baptism… The Mohawks finished their council and the division of the booty... The old man whom Fr. Jogues had just before baptized refused to stir from where he was sitting… Scarcely had he [the old man] finished speaking [refusing to move] when one of the braves smashed his skull and scalped him.  Father Jogues rejoiced in the sorrow, for the waters of baptism had scarce dried on his head.”[17]

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, pp. 122-123: “At Teanaustayae, Jogues witnessed a torture and a conversion that surpassed anything human.  A chief belonging to the Oneida nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, together with eleven warriors, was to be executed.  The chief listened to the Blackrobes Ondessonk [Jogues] and Echon, declared he wished to be baptized, and urged his followers to follow his lead.  After the ordinary cruelties had been inflicted, just prior to the killings, the chief was baptized Peter.  One by one, his companions, also baptized, succumbed to the fire and knives.  Peter remained alone on the platform.  He was scalped, mutilated, and scorched over his entire body.  Suddenly, as if inspired, he attacked his Huron persecutors…The Hurons threw him into a huge bonfire.  He rose out of the flames, with flaring torches in his hands, and rushed on his enemies.  They retreated as he ran toward the palisades to set the village on fire.  They felled him with a club and cut off his feet and hands.  Then, they held him over nine different fires… Finally they crushed him under an overturned tree trunk, all on fire.  Extricating himself, he crawled elbows and knees, pulling himself a space of ten steps towards his persecutors.  They fled before him as before a fiend.  One, finally, struck him down and slashed off his head.”[18]

The missionaries were convinced that it was only because Peter had received the Sacrament of Baptism that he had the miraculous strength to undergo all of these incredible tortures, survive and still move against his persecutors.

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, pp. 298-299: “Once, when he had entered a cabin in one of the villages to inquire about the sick, Jogues heard his name called from the darkness of a corner.  Going over, he found a young man desperately ill.  ‘Ondessonk,’ the sick young man exclaimed, ‘do you not know me?’ 

‘I do not remember ever having seen you before,’ Fr. Jogues replied.

‘Do you not remember well the favor I did you at your entrance into the country of the Iroquois?’ the man questioned. 

‘But what favor did you do me?’ asked Jogues, puzzled.

‘Don’t you remember the man who cut your bonds, in the third village of the Agnieronon Iroquois, when you were at the end of your strength?’ he continued.

‘Of course I remember that very well.  That man put me in his debt very, very much.  I have never been able to thank him.  I beg you, give me some news of him, if you are acquainted with him.’

‘It was I, myself, who did it.  I who took pity on you and loosed you.’…

Father Jogues told the dying man about God, of the happiness in the next life with God for those who believed, of what it was necessary to believe in order to be baptized and be made happy forever after death.  The man listened with attention.  With deep sincerity, he begged for baptism and for the happiness Ondessonk promised him.  Father Jogues poured on his head the water of salvation.  While he prayed beside the mat, a few hours later, the man died peacefully.”[19] 

AMAZING BAPTISMS

Especially in the life of St. Isaac Jogues, we find incredible stories about his baptizing people under amazing and/or miraculous circumstances.  These stories also show the truth of the dogma, Unless a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues [while captive among the Iroquois Mohawks], p. 272: “The camps at night were in the open, in a hollow of the snow.  He had no furs, like the others, to protect him, and he could not move the hearts of any of the party to lend him any covering, though they carried several skins back as their spoils of the chase…

“Along the way, they had to cross a gorge of a swift mountain stream.  The bridge was a tree trunk stretched a few feet above the swirling, deep waters.  It was unsteady with slippery moss.  One of the party was a pregnant woman, who also carried a baby in the basket on her back and was otherwise burdened with the camp utensils.  The strap of the cradle was across her forehead, and the bundles were fastened to her shoulders.  The squaw [Indian woman] started to climb across the tree, while Father Jogues waited to follow her.  She lost her balance and toppled over into the tumbling rapids.  The baggage strapped to her shoulders weighed her to the bottom, the thong that held the cradle slipped from her forehead to her neck and was strangling her.

“In an instant, Father Jogues leaped into the gorge and the icy current.  Wading and swimming, he fought his way to the woman, unstrapped the bundles and the cradle, and dragged her and the baby back to the bank.  He took good care to baptize the baby before he lifted it out of the water.  The Mohawks made a roaring fire and revived the woman, who was numbed almost to death.  They allowed Ondessonk [Fr. Jogues] to warm himself and even commended him, for they realized that the woman would have been drowned except for his aid.  She recovered, but the newly baptized child died within a few days.”[20]

This fascinating story shows us how the Almighty can and does get any soul that He wants to baptism.  If the woman hadn’t fallen into the icy waters, St. Isaac wouldn’t have had the opportunity to baptize her baby.  It’s quite obvious that God arranged it so that this little child received the sacrament just before He took it from the earth.

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 225: “Two of the Hurons, Jogues learned, were to be burned to death that night at Tionontoguen.  He stayed with them on the platform and concentrated his appeals on them.  Finally they consented.  About that moment, the Mohawks threw the prisoners some raw corn that had been freshly plucked.  The sheaths [of the corn] were wet from the recent rains.  Father Jogues carefully gathered the precious drops of water on a leaf and poured them over the heads of the two neophytes [new converts], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  The Mohawks understood that his [Jogues’] act meant to bring happiness to these hated victims.  They raged at his audacity and beat him down, threatening to slaughter him with the Hurons… That night the two Hurons [whom he had baptized] were burned over the fire.”[21]

If the sheaths of corn had not been thrown at that very moment, Jogues wouldn’t have had the water with which to baptize the two Indians.  And, as noted in his life, St. Isaac Jogues always instructed the heathen in the essentials they had to know for baptism (e.g., the Trinity and the Incarnation).

John 3:5,7 – “[Jesus saith] Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God… wonder not, that I said to thee, you must be born again.”

OTHER QUOTES FROM JOGUES AND XAVIER ON BAPTISM

In the life of St. Isaac Jogues, there is a fascinating account of his party’s capture by the Iroquois savages.  In it we find the description of Jogues’ focus on baptizing an unbaptized Huron Indian who was accompanying them.  Here is the account of when their party was suddenly and unexpectedly attacked by the Iroquois savages, who wanted to capture and torture them:

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 205: “The most devoted of all was Atieronhonk, whom Jogues had baptized at the first volley.  The man could not get over his astonishment. [Atieronhonk said]: ‘It must be admitted that these people who come to instruct us have no doubt whatever of the truths they teach us.  It must be that God alone is their reward.  There is Ondessonk [Isaac Jogues].  He forgot himself at the moment of danger.  He thought only of me, and spoke to me of becoming a Christian.  The musket balls whisked past our ears, death was before our very eyes.  He thought only of baptizing me, and not of saving himself.  He did not fear death.  But he [Jogues] did think that I would be lost forever if I died without baptism.”[22]

Below is another interesting account of an Indian named Ahatsistari, who was converted by St. Isaac Jogues and his companions.  Ahatsistari addressed St. Isaac Jogues and St. John De Brebeuf as follows:

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 168: “I have the faith deep down in my heart, and my actions during the past winter have proved it sufficiently.  In two days I am departing on the warpath.  If I am killed in battle, tell me: where will my soul go if you refuse me baptism?  If you saw into my heart as clearly as the great Master of our lives, I would already be numbered among the Christians; and the fear of the flames of hell would not accompany me, now that I am about to face death.  I cannot baptize myself.  All that I can do is to declare with utmost honesty the desire that I have for it.  After I do that, if my soul be burned in hell, you will bear the guilt of it.  Whatever you may decide to do, however, I will always pray to God, since I know Him.  Perhaps He will have mercy on me, for you say that He is wiser than you are.”[23]

It is obvious that Ahatsistari hadn’t been taught “baptism of desire.”  He understood that he would go to Hell if he died without the Sacrament of Baptism.  Shortly after this speech, Ahatsistari was solemnly baptized.

St. Francis Xavier, May, 1546: “Here there are altogether seven towns of Christians, all of which I went through and baptized all the newborn infants and the children not yet baptized.  A great many of them died soon after their baptism, so that it was clear enough that their life had only been preserved by God until the entrance to eternal life should be opened to them.”[24]

St. Francis Xavier, Feb, 1548: “The thing which I wish to commend to you above everything else is that you should employ special diligence and watchfulness in the baptism of little children, so as not to leave any lately born child not regenerated in the saving laver of Christ in any of the villages… Make search and inquiry for yourselves, and baptize with your own hands all those whom you find in want of that most necessary Sacrament.”[25]

The Life of St. Isaac Jogues, p. 94: “On one occasion, Father Jogues found a savage named Sonoresk favorably disposed and sufficiently instructed, who was grasping his last breath.  All through the night the man kept repeating ‘Rihouiosta’ (I believe).  Ondessonk [St. Isaac Jogues] baptized him, and the man suddenly recovered.  He announced that baptism cured him: the water that had been poured on his head by Ondessonk [Jogues] had flowed down through his throat, so that he felt no more pains.  His rejoicing in this life was not for long, however, for he died the next day.”[26]