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“A much greater source of anxiety to Us is the style of action of those who maintain that liturgical worship should shed its sacred character, who foolishly say we should substitute for sacred items & furnishings ordinary common things in daily use.” —Pope Saint Paul VI (14 Oct 1968)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Relics of Father Brébeuf Touring the United States!

Jeff Ostrowski · February 29, 2024

ATHER NICHOLAS NELSON kindly alerted me to an article in the National Catholic Register explaining that the holy relics of Saint Jean de Brébeuf are currently touring the United States. As the article puts it: “The skull of Saint Jean de Brébeuf, packed in a Volkswagen manned by three Jesuit priests, is slowly making its way across the USA.” The tour will end in New York City on 6 March 2024. The relics of his fellow missionaries, Saint Gabriel Lalemant (d. 17 March 1649) and Saint Charles Garnier (d. 7 December 1649), travel along with his skull.

25 March • If you open the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal and look on page 921—incidentally, one of the book’s most beautiful pages—you can learn why 25 March is a very special day in the life of Father Brébeuf. In honor of this RELIC VOYAGE I’ve decided to give 25% off my 10-hour seminar (Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster) until 25 March 2024:

*  Seminar • SECRETS OF THE CONSCIENTIOUS CHOIRMASTER

Coupon Code •  Anyone who uses the secret coupon code (“SAVE25”) will instantly save 25% on that seminar until 25 March 2024.

Excerpt from the Life of Saint John Brébeuf:

N THE MORNING of March 20 the Jesuits at Sainte-Marie received full confirmation of the Iroquois retreat. They had heard too of the fate of Brébeuf and Lalemant, and the missionary Father Jacques Bonin was sent with seven armed Frenchmen to Saint Ignace to recover their bodies. The party passed through Saint Louis, where the ground was strewn with uncounted dead Hurons and Iroquois. On to Saint Ignace they continued, where all was gruesome silence and death. Among the ashes of the burned-out cabins charred corpses were scattered, and they came upon the blackened, mutilated body of Brébeuf. The mangled remains of Lalemant they found with the tortured Hurons a short distance away. Tenderly Father Bonin and his companions lifted the two bodies on stretchers of bark and carried them the six miles to Sainte-Marie. They were laid side by side on the floor of the living room. Priests, brothers, donnés, and workmen gazed at them with awe and lovingly examined them. Father Bonin knelt for two hours by the body of Gabriel, who had been his dearest friend, and kissed the wounds as he would the relics of a saint. “They are the relics of the love of God which alone triumphs in the death of martyrs,” exclaimed Father Ragueneau.

The missionaries had learned—from a few Hurons who had escaped the holocaust at Saint Ignace—details of the torture and death of Brébeuf and Lalemant. Confirmation now was before their eyes. The bodies of Brébeuf and Lalemant were cleansed and clothed in priestly vestments and placed in roughhewn boxes. Through the night they reposed before the Blessed Sacrament. “We buried these precious relics,” relates Father Ragueneau, “on Sunday, March 21, with so much consolation and such tender feelings of devotion in all who were present at the obsequies that I know none who did not desire rather than fear a similar death, and who did not regard himself as blessed to live in a place where, perhaps a few days from then, God would accord him the grace of shedding on a similar occasion both his blood and his life. Not one of us could force himself to pray to God for them, as if they had any need of prayer. On the contrary, our spirits were carried up toward Heaven where, we had no doubt, their souls resided. Be this as it may, I pray to God that he fulfill in us His Will, even to death, as He has done toward them.”

Father Jean de Brébeuf was fifty-six when he gave his body to the Iroquois and his soul to God. With heavy heart Father Ragueneau wrote to his superior in France, telling the loss of their ablest missionary. When Brébeuf first set foot in Huronia twenty-three years before, he recalled, there was not a Christian in that extensive territory. Since that day nearly seven thousand had been baptized, and to Brébeuf more than to any other that long line of conversions must be credited.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: February 29, 2024

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    This coming Sunday—13 July 2025—is the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). All the chants have been conveniently assembled and posted at the feasts website. The OFFERTORY, Ad Te Levávi, is particularly beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
    Our readers will be interested in this job offering for Music Director at Saint Adalbert’s Basilica, located 40 minutes from where I live. My pastor was recently elevated to this basilica. He is offering $80,000 per year, plus benefits. I’m told Saint Adalbert’s Basilica is utterly gorgeous and contains one of America’s most magnificent pipe organs. It would be fantastic to have a colleague nearby!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

He stood firm against nepotism, rebuking his predecessor Pope Pius IV to his face when he wanted to make a 13-year-old member of his family a cardinal and subsidize a nephew from the papal treasury.

— Re: Pope Saint Pius V (d. 1572)

Recent Posts

  • “How to Conduct 90 Vespers Services Each Year and Live to Tell the Tale.”
  • 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
  • The Tallis Scholars
  • Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
  • Pope Saint Paul VI to Consilium (14 October 1968)

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