Jesuit martyrs of North America. John was born in Conde-sur­Vire, in Normandy, France, on March 25, 1593 . Joining the Society of Jesus, he was ordained in 1622. Three years later he volunteered for the missions in Quebec. Canada. For the next quarter of a century. with a brief interruption, he labored among the Huron Indians. His labors were placed in jeopardy because of Huguenot ren­egades and a smallpox epidemic that decimated entire Indian villages. John left for a brief time when the English captured Quebec, but returned to the Hurons again.

André Grasset was born in Montreal on April 3, 1758. His father was French, from Montpellier, and had arrived in Canada in 1749, when appointed secretary of the new governor general of New France. After the death of his first wife, he married the daughter of a rich merchant, with whom he had five children. André was the second. They lived close to the Chapel of Bon Secours.