Beatified

Outside St. Peter's in Rome there were strange scenes, last week. In fiendish war-paint, a band of Iroquois Indians fell upon canoeing Jesuit priests, slashed them with knives, bit out their fingernails, grilled their soles on glowing tomahawks -- all on large banners which decorated the main entrance to the church.

Later, Pope Pius, a Canadian pilgrimate and 60,000 of the faithful knelt in veneration and beatified the tortured priests whose sufferings were blazoned on the banners. The beatified: John de Brebeuf, Gabriel Lalemant, Anthony Daniel, Charles Gamier, Noel Charbanel, Jean de la Lande, Rene Goupil and Isaac Jogues.

Father Jogues, "little father of the wilderness," was the discoverer of Lake George and the first white man to penetrate to Lake Superior. He was caught, tortured by the Indians. Pope Uurban VIII granted him a dispensation to say mass with mutilated hands.