The nearly naked Indians stared at the giant young Norman, as tall and broad as they, robed in black and with a full black beard on his gentle face. He was to live among the Hurons for nineteen years, patiently and with enormous difficulty learning their ways and language, and with infinite pains leading a small band of them into the Faith and away from the blood lusts of their violent life.
He was to eat their raw bear and moose meat, to paddle many months and many miles in their canoes, to build his rough chapel surrounded by their long houses, and to gain their respect and love, before falling into the hands of their vengeful enemies, the Iroquois.
This swift-paced book is more than a biography of a great Saint whose story has never before been completely told in English, it is a vital chapter in the tragic history of New France in America three centuries ago, a story of the failure of colonization partially redeemed by the blood of the martyrs of the Church.
Into the land of the federated Huron nations bounded by three Great Lakes, Father Jean de Brebeuf, whom the Hurons called "Echon," made his tortuous way. Almost immediately he was received as a member of their polygamous "family" for, with all their animal-like habits, they were a hospitable people - but because he did not adopt their ways as did the other Frenchmen until the very end some feared him as a sorcerer.
He witnessed hideous tortures of rival tribesmen, joined them on hunting trips, saw their revolting orgies, sat in on their grand councils with the French and with their Indian foes.
At length, joined by other Blackrobes, "Echon" began to make converts, erected a bit of Old France with church and stockade in St. Marie. Never disturbed by fears for his our safety, he saw his village chapels burned, his converts shunned and tortured, his fellow priests meet violent ends. Finally his own end came at the hands of the Iroquois "enemy" and after incredible tortures.
'Saint Among the Hurons' is an epic. It has the towering noble character to be the epic hero. It has the sweep and grandeur of an epic tale, and it has the addition something that epics do not have. It has the golden thread of sanctity running throughout. It is a graphic reminder that the foundations of this country rest upon more than Plymouth Rock. This life of St. Jean de Brebeuf is an admirable companion piece to Father Talbot's earlier study of heroic sanctity in 'Saint Among Savages', a life of Brebeuf's companion, Isaac Jogues." - Rev. Harold C. Gardiner, Literary Edition, America.