THE CAUSE OF
SEBASTIAN RÂLE (1652-1724): IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 275TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS MARTYRDOM
(23 August 1999)

Fr. Vincent Lapomarda, S.J.

INTRODUCTION

A native of Pontarlier, France, Sebastian Râle was baptized on 28 January 1652 and joined the Society of Jesus on 24 September 1675.  He came to America on 13 October 1689 and, after spending some time with the native Americans in Illinois (1692-95) and at Becancour (1705-11) in Canada, he lived most of his life among the Abenakis for whom  he has the distinction of having established the first school  ever in  what is now the State of Maine. His was a period when  England and France were engaged in a struggle for the control of North America. In that struggle, which was a religious as well as a political conflict, Father Râle incurred the wrath of the English who placed a price on his head because he kept the native Americans loyal to the French, centered at Quebec, as they maintained a defensive perimeter of forts on the rivers between New England and New France.  Determined to stand by his flock, the native Americans of the Kennebec River Valley, and to defend their rights while caring for their pastoral needs and nuturing their religious beliefs and practices, Râle was cut down at his mission in Norridgewock, Maine, on 23 August 1724, as he defended his Abenaki flock with his life.  This caused the Protestants throughout the region to rejoice at the death of this most famous Jesuit in colonial New England. In the wake of his death there was a Father Râle's War for two years in which the native Americans lost their lands with the triumph of the English. That his memory has been esteemed by many people in every generation since his saintly martyrdom is an indication of his stature in history.

THE CAUSE

In regard to the cause of sainthood for Rev. Sebastian Râle [variations of the name are Racle, Rasle, Rasles, etc.], a Jesuit missionary for many years in what was the Diocese (now Archdiocese) of Quebec and what became the Diocese (now Archdiocese) of Boston, Massachusetts, and what is now the Diocese of Portland, Maine, the essential qualifying condition for any candidate is the existence of a genuine and widespread "fama sancitatis" ("reputation for sanctity") from the time of the person's death up to the present.  Certainly, this condition can be presumed to have been met in the case of Father Râle (and the other martyrs of what is now the United States) more than fifty years ago when Dennis Cardinal Dougherty of Philadelphia, as Dean of the American Hierarchy, first presented the cause of 116 United States Martyrs to the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, under date of 23 September 1941, as documented in the work by Most Rev. John Mark Gannon (edited by Rt. Rev. Msgr. James M. Powers, LL. D., as The Martyrs of the United States, it  was published in Easton, PA, 1957).  Although that action of the American bishops in favor of Râle and 115 other martyrs was thwarted by the outbreak of World War II, Pope Pius XII, in a personal interview after the war (see the same work, pp. 192-194), told Archbishop Gannon, in regard to cause of the American martyrs: "This Cause is Beatutiful . . . most beautiful."    What follows are eight points highlighting the available evidence about Father Râle's "fama sancitatis" from the time of his death down to the present.

First, from the Jesuit Relations (vol. 67, pp. 85 ff., 133 ff., and 231 ff., namely, the letter of Father Râle to his nephew on 15 October 1722, and the one to his brother on 12 October 1723, in additon to a third document of  29 October 1724 by Pierre-Joseph de La Chasse, Superior General of the Missions of New France), it is clear that the martyred Jesuit, the Apostle to the Abenakis,  has been held in high esteem for his personal sanctity not only since the time of his death but even before his martyrdom on 23 August 1724 (Father de La Chasse, pp. 231-232, refers to this as "a glorious death, which was ever the object of his desire, --- for we know that long ago he aspired to the happiness of sacrificing his life for his flock"). Clearly, the letter of Father de La Chasse is proof that the Jesuit Superior of the Missions bear witness to a "fama sanctitatis" of Father Râle since the day of his death. That same letter, which is the oldest account of the martyr's death, tells how the Jesuit, in risking his life to save his flock, was shot dead at the foot of the large Cross that had been set up to mark the site of the mission village.

Second, regarding the years from Father Râle's death to the present, Father Antonio Dragon, S. J., in his work, Le Vrai Visage de Sébastien Râle (1975), has summarized  (pp. 160-161) the evidence for and against the martyred Jesuit.  Although Father Râle was hated by the English authorities in New England during his lifetime and regarded unfavorably by such authors as Samuel Penhallow (1726), Thomas Hutchinson (1767), John W. Hanson (1849), Francis Parkman (1867), James Phinney Baxter (1894), and Fanny Hardy Eckstorm (1934) because they shared either the anti-Catholic or anti-French viewpoint, any researcher can find an even stronger and more dominant opinion in favor of the priest from a number of non-Catholics, mostly of English background in New England, such as Jonathan Greenleaf (1821), Enoch Lincoln (1829), William D. Williamson (1832), Joseph Sewall (1833), Converse Francis (1845), William Allen (1849),  George Bancroft (1883), John Francis Sprague (1906), Kenneth M. Morrison (1974), and Mary Calvert (1991).  Among the Catholic writers favorable to Father Râle, in addition to Archbishop Gannon and Fathers de La Chasse and Antonio Dragon (not to mention the classical historians of the Archdiocese of Boston), one can point to Pierre-François Xavier de Charlevoix (1744),  Bishop Benedict Joseph Fenwick, S. J. (1836), John Gilmary Shea (1857), Camille de Rochemonteix (1896), Edmund J. A. Young (1899), Henry C. Schuyler (1907), Thomas J. Campbell (1917), Mary Celeste Leger (1929), Martin P. Harney (1941), William Leo Lucey (1957), Thomas Charland (1969), Vincent A. Lapomarda (1977), James Hennesey (1981), Robert M. Chute (1982), and Albert J. Nevins (1987).

Third, over the years the increasing "fama sanctitatis" of Father Râle  among both Catholics and non-Catholics can be demonstrated in other significant ways.  The clearest manifestation of this is the annual commemoration of his martyrdom in which both Catholics and non-Catholics have been participating over the past generation, particularly in the geographical area of his saintly martyrdom.  Father Dragon makes reference (p. 7) to such a celebration at Norridgewock, Maine, on the 250th anniversary of Father Râle's death and, in recent years, there has been an announcement annually in The Church World, the newspaper of the Diocese of Portland, Maine, for a similar celebration in which Catholics joined with their non-Catholic brethren in the area of Madison.

Fourth, while those celebration testify to the "fama sanctitatis" of Father Râle regardless of religious divisions among Christians, there have been  other developments in the history of New England (especially since the martyrdom of the Jesuit) that emphasize how highly he has been revered among Catholics in New England.  These are: (1) the marking of the site of Father Râle's grave by the native Americans themselves from the time of his martyrdom in 1724; (2) the recognition of his grave by the soldiers in Benedict Arnold's army when they were on their way to Quebec in 1775; (3) the erection in 1833 of an imposing granite monument over the grave of Father Râle by Bishop Fenwick, Second Bishop of Boston; (4) the establishment in Madison, Maine, in 1907, of a parish named in honor of the patron saint of Father Râle;  (5) the historical memorial placed in 1924, by Bishop Louis Sebastian Walsh of Portland, in the Church of St. Benigne in Pontarlier, France, where Râle had been baptized; (6) the reaffirmation of Father Râle's contribution to the Diocese of Portland with the return of the Jesuits to Maine in 1942 to staff Cheverus High School;  (7) the minting of a medal of Father Râle, designed by Allison Macomber, for Boston College's honoring of a number of good citizens, in conjunction with the American Bicentennial in 1976; and (8) the proclamation, as national Catholic historical sites,  by the International Order of Alhambra, on 23 August 1999, of Father Râle's grave and the church named for his patron saint. Certainly, these eight milestones (not to mention units of the Knights of Columbus  like the Fourth Degree Assembly, No. 337,  in Portland dating from 1948 and of the circle of the Daughters of Isabella named in honor of the Jesuit)  bear testimony to the "fama sanctitatis" of the Jesuit in the consciousness of New England where today not only the secular map of the State of Maine lists his monument as a historical site at Norridgewock, the place of his martyrdom, but where prominent institutions of higher learning such as Bowdoin College and Harvard University (not to mention the Maine Historical Society) have been engaged in preserving  such memorabilia as the historic bell of his mission and his scholarly dictionary of the Indian language, in addition to some original letters of the Jesuit missionary, and the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated a marking, on December 16, 2000, commemorating the site of the First Native American School founded by the Jesuit in what is now the State of Maine.

Fifth, if any weakness ever existed in the documentation available on Father Râle, it was underscored years ago by Arthur J. Riley when he emphasized (1936)  how difficult was the problem of reconciling the account of Father Râle's martyrdom as given by de La Chasse sixty-seven days after the death of the Jesuit compared to the one that is given by Thomas Hutchinson whose authority rests on the testimony of participants recorded about forty years after the martyrdom.  The particular virtue of Father Dragon's account is that he does not shrink from that challenge and presents a very satisfactory solution to the problem, especially in quoting (pp. 169-170) the testimony of Father Râle's Protestant biographer, John Francis Sprague.  Perhaps the worst argument that could be raised against the Jesuit is that he advocated force in the defense of his flock, but reason teaches that every person has a right to self-defense against an unjust aggressor.

Sixth, not foreign to Râle's defense is the statement by John Gilmary Shea that it was "not easy to form an opinion" about the martyrdom of the Jesuit priest.   In his edition of The History of New France by Charlevoix, Shea argues (5, p. 280, n. 2) that the Indians were "unwise" to resist the English when they could have saved themselves and the Jesuit by moving to Canada, as the Jesuit Superior had once suggested.  Yet, even though the tragedy at Norridgewock was, to use Shea's word "foreseeen," the historians of the Archdiocese of Boston  (Robert H. Lord, John E. Sexton, and Edward T. Harrington) have handled such an objection very deftly in defense of Father Râle (1, pp,. 133-134).  In any case, such a reservation does not  offer sufficient reason for hesitating to form an opinion about Râle's heroism any more than it does to form an opinion about those Jesuits who, having anticipated death, were slaughtered in El Salvador on 16 November 1989.

Seven, in the evaluation of any true martyr, theolgians find that three conditions, set forth by the scholarly Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini (1675-1758), the future Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758), in his classic study of the 1730s, De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione,  are required: (1) a person must have risked life to the point of death; (2) this death must have been inflicted in hated of the victim's religion; and (3) this same death must have been volutarily embraced by the victim in defense of one's religious beliefs and practices.  In the case of Sebastian Râle, there is no doubt within the Catholic community (and even outside of it), from the time of his death up to the present that all conditions have been fulfilled by his martyrdom.  As Father Dragon has pointed out, Râle was not included among the Jesuit Martyrs of North America beatified in 1925 and canonized in 1930 because that group was restricted to the martyrs of the seventeenth century.

Eight, as far as the curative powers of Father Râle are concerned, one can point to the Old Point Indian Spring located not far from the memorial  erected by Bishop Fenwick in memory of the Jesuit missionary.  The effectiveness of the waters of this spring (". . . on the east bank of the Kennebec a short distance from the monument . . .") have been recognized by the native Americans and pointed out by Israel T. Dana as far back as 25 October 1882.  For further information, one should consult (pp. 13-14) the compilation by Emma Folsom Clark and others,  History of Madison (1962).And, it should be noted that the Church of St. Sebastian in Madison, Maine, conducts a monthly healing service with the expectation that the intercession of the Jesuit will become more manifest among the People of God.

Therefore, given the cumulative testimony presented here, the historical evidence shows that Rev. Sebastian Râle, S. J., in the words of leading church historians (Lord, et alii, vol. 1, p. 115, n. 69) was "a man of exalted piety and sanctity," and that there has existed a genuine and widespread "fama sanctitatis" regarding this Jesuit from the time of his saintly death down to the present.  That interest in  his beatification and canonization has perdured in the diocese of his martyrdom only confirms the strength of his cause within the Catholic community itself  just as the recognition of his stature by writers outside of it (there was an article by Dwayne Rioux, "Father Sebastian Râle," in the Central Maine Morning Sentinel, for Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 1991, and another by Sharon Mack, "Madison Marks Martyrdom of Father Rale," in the Bangor Daily News, August 21, 1992) continues to make readers within the State of Maine conscious of their rich heritage.  While conditions required for advancing the cause of anyone are quite stringent, they are quite flexible with respect to a martyr, as evident from the study (chapter 4) by Kenneth L. Woodward, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn't, and Why (1990), a point that was not foreign to the causes of  the 108 victims of the Nazis who were beatified in Warsaw by Pope John Paul II on Sunday, June 13, 1999.  In this connection, it may be helpful to recall the response of the Superior of St. Sulpice in Montreal, Canada, when Father de La Chasse asked for the customary prayers for the martyred Jesuit missionary.  Recalling St. Augustine, he declared "Injuriam facit martyri qui orat pro eo."And, Zenit News Agency, asserted this principle when, in a dateline from Vatican City, on 28 June 1999, it declared: "For recognized martyrs, no proof of a miracle wrought by their intercession is necessary before beatification."  If that is true, then the beatification of this Jesuit is long overdue.