René Goupil
French Jesuit lay brother and missionary (1608-1642)
Feast: 29 September (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
René Goupil of Anjou, prevented by health from joining the Jesuits, served them without pay as a surgeon in Quebec. In 1642 he set out with St Isaac Jogues for the Huron mission.
Captured by the Iroquois, he was beaten and mutilated; he could have escaped but stayed with Jogues. Having taught the children to make the sign of the cross, he was killed with a hatchet on 23 September 1642, calling on the name of Jesus, the first of his order in Canada to be martyred.
The miracles
As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A surgeon who died for teaching children the sign of the cross.
Connected on this site
- Canadian Martyrs Saint honoured together
- Canadian Martyrs Saint“René Goupil was killed in 1642 at Ossernenon; Isaac Jogues and Jean de Lalande near today's Auriesville on 18 October 1647; Antoine Daniel in 1648; and Jean de Brébeuf, Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier and Noël Chabanel in 1649, during the war that destroyed the Huron nation and its missions.” — this site's research
- Isaac Jogues Saint“The Jesuit brother René Goupil was killed in 1642 at Ossernenon; Isaac Jogues and Jean de Lalande were killed near today's Auriesville, New York, on 18 October 1647.” — this site's research
- Jean de Lalande Saint“Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests, and companions, martyrs, of the Society of Jesus: on this day Saint Jean de Lalande, religious, was killed by some local pagans in the village of Ossernenon, today in Canada, where a few years earlier Saint René Goupil had also won the palm of martyrdom.” — this site's research
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - René Goupil
- Wikidata Q1524650 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — René Goupil (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.