God did not permit that a deposit so precious should remain in
the midst of the forest, unhonored and forgotten. The savages named
Kiskakons, who have been making public profession of Christianity
for nearly ten years, and who were instructed by Father Marquette
when he lived at the point of St. Esprit, at the extreme of Lake
Superior, carried on their last winter's hunting in the vicinity
of the lake of the Ilinois. As they were returning in the spring;
they were greatly pleased to pass near the grave of their good
Father, whom they tenderly love; and God also put it into their
hearts to remove his hones and bring them to our church at the
mission of St. Ignace at Missilimakinac, where those savages make
their abode.
They repaired then, to the spot, and resolved among themselves
to act in regard to the Father as they are wont to do toward
those for whom they profess great respect. Accordingly, they
opened the
grave, and uncovered the body; and, although the flesh and internal
organs were all dried up, they found it entire, so that not even
the skin was in any way injured. This did not prevent them from
proceeding to dissect it, as is their custom. They cleansed the
bones and exposed them to the sun to dry; then, carefully laying
them in a box of birch bark, they set out to bring them to our
mission of St. Ignace.
There were nearly 30 canoes which formed, in excellent order,
that funeral procession. There were also a goodly number of
Iroquois, who united with our Algonquin savages to lend more
honor to the
ceremonial. When they drew near our house, Father Nouvel, who
is
its superior, with Father Piercon, went out to meet them, accompanied
by the Frenchmen and savages who were there; and having halted
the procession, he put the usual questions to them, to make
sure that It was really the Father's body which they were bringing.
Before conveying it to land, they intoned the de profundis
in
the presence of the 30 canoes, which were still on the water,
and of
the people who were on the shore. After that, the body was
carried to the church, care being taken to observe all that
the ritual
appoints in such ceremonies. It remained exposed under the
pall, all that day, which was Whitsun Monday, the 8th of lone;
anti
on the morrow, after having rendered to it all the funeral
rites, it was lowered into a small vault in the middle of the
church,
where it rests as the guardian angel of our Outaouas missions.
The savages often come to pray over his tomb. Not to mention
more
than this instance, a young girl, aged 19 or 20 years, whom
the late Father had instructed, and who had been baptized in
the
past year, fell sick, and applied to Father Nouvel to be bled
and to
take certain remedies. The Father prescribed to her, as sole
medicine, to come for 3 days and say a later and three Ave's
at the tomb
of Father Marquette. She did so, and before the 3rd day was
cured, without bleeding or any other remedies.
Father Jaques Marquette, of the province of Champagne, died
at the age of 38 years, of which 21 were passed in the Society
namely,
12 in France and 9 in Canada. He was sent to the missions
of the tipper Algonquins, who are called Outaouacs; and labored
therein
with the zeal that might be expected from a man who had proposed
to himself St. Francis Xavier as the model of his life and
death. He resembled that great saint, not only in the variety
of barbarian
languages which he mastered, but also by the range of his
zeal,
which made him carry the faith to the ends of this new world,
and nearly 800 leagues from here into the forests, where
the name of
Jesus Christ had never been proclaimed.
He always entreated God that he might end his life in these
laborious missions, and that, like his dear St. Xavier,
he might die in
the midst of the woods bereft of everything. Every day,
he interposed for that end both the merits of Jesus Christ
and
the intercession
of the Virgin Immaculate, for whom he entertained a singular
tenderness.
Accordingly, he obtained through such powerful mediators
that which he solicited with so much earnestness; since
he had,
like the apostle
of the Indies, the happiness to die in a wretched cabin
on the shore of Lake Ilinois, forsaken by all the world.
We might say much of the rare virtues of this noble missionary;
of his zeal, which prompted him to carry the faith
so far, and proclaim the Gospel to so many peoples who were
unknown
to us;
of his gentleness, which rendered him beloved by all,
and made him all things to all mena Frenchman with
the
French,
a Huron
with the Hurons, an Algonquin with the Algonquins;
of the childlike candor with which he disclosed his heart
to his
superiors,
and even to all kinds of persons, with an ingenuousness
which won
all hearts; of his angelic chastity; and of his uninterrupted
union
with God.
But that which apparently predominated was a devotion,
altogether rare and singular, to the Blessed Virgin,
and particularly
toward the mystery of her immaculate conception.
It was a pleasure to
hear him speak or preach on that subject. All his
conversations and letters contained something about the Blessed
Virgin
Immaculate for so he always called her. From the
age of 9 years, he fasted
every Saturday; and from his tenderest youth began
to say the little office of the conception, inspiring everyone
with the same
devotion.
Some months before
his death, he said every day with his two men a little
corona of the
immaculate conception which he had devised as follows;
after the credo, there is said once the pater and
ave, and then
4 times these
words: Ave filia Dei patris, ave mater filli
Dei, ave sponsa
spiritus sancti, ave templum totius trinitatis; per
sanctam virginitatem et immaculatam conceptionem
tuam, purissima
virgo, emunda Cor
et
Carnem meam; in nominee patris, et filii, et spiritus
sancti, concluding with the gloria patri, the whole
repeated three
times.
He never failed to say the Mass of the Conception,
or, at least, when he could do so, the prayer of
the Conception.
He hardly
meditated upon anything else day and night. That
he might leave us an ever
enduring testimony of his sentiments, it was his
desire to
bestow on the mission of the Ilinois the name of
La Conception.
So tender a devotion toward the mother of God merited
some singular grace; and she accorded him the
favor that he
had always requested
to die on a Saturday. His companions never doubted
that she appeared to him at the hour of his death,
when, after
pronouncing
the
names of Jesus and Mary, he suddenly raised his
eyes above his crucifix,
holding them fixed on an object which he regarded
with extreme pleasure and a joy that showed itself
upon
his features;
and they had at that time, the impression that
he had rendered up his soul
into the hands of his good mother.
One of the last letters that he wrote to the
Father Superior of the missions before his
great voyage,
is sufficient
evidence that
such were his sentiments. He begins it thus:
"The Blessed Virgin Immaculate has obtained for me the favor of
reaching this place in good health, and with
the resolve to correspond to the intentions which God has respecting me, since
He has assigned
me to the voyage toward the south. I have
no other thought than that of doing what God wills. I dread nothing neither the
Nadoissis,
nor the reception awaiting me among the nations
dismay me. One of two things will happen: either God will punish me for my
crimes
and cowardice, or else He will give me a
share in Isis cross, which
I have not yet carried since my arrival in
this country. But this cross has been perhaps obtained for me by the Blessed
Virgin Immaculate,
or it may be death itself, that 1 may cease
to offend God. It is that for which I try to hold myself in readiness, surrendering
myself altogether into His hands. I entreat
Your Reverence not
to forget me, and to obtain for me of God
that I may not remain ungrateful for the favors which He heaps upon me."
