For the past 13 years, I’ve been working in Oak Brook, Illinois. But other than my office and the occasional trip out to eat, I’ve done virtually nothing in the town or its surroundings.
With the launch of this project, I figured it was time to change that. So on a recent trip into the neighboring town of Hinsdale to stop at the local hardware store, I rerouted to St. Isaac Jogues Parish before returning to my office.
For those who don’t know, which is probably a scant few of you, Jogues was a native Frenchman who served as a missionary with the Native American population in North America in the 1600s. Originally considered a “living martyr” by Pope Urban VIII following a long period of captivity and torture by a Mohawk Indian tribe in 1846, Jogues nonetheless returned to the continent in 1842 to continue his work. He died a martyr later that year.
52 Masses 