Some 250 teachers attended the Peel Catholic Teachers Guild’s most recent event at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Mississauga where they experienced the relics of three of the Canadian Martyrs.
While the celebration of Holy Mass, complete with an honour guard by the Knights of Columbus, brought reverence and dignity to the Eucharistic celebration, the highlight of the event was the display of bones of Sts. Gabriel Lalemant and Charles Garnier as well as the skull of St. Jean de Brebeuf, martyred in the 1600s near what is now Midland, Ont., as they ministered to the Huron nation.
Members of the guild knelt before the precious relics before venerating them and praying for their intercession in their lives. It’s an experience that Shane Byrne, president of the guild, won’t soon forget.
“Prior to them coming to Canada Fr. John O’Brien, rector of Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland, was saying that most likely if they weren't missionaries, these saints would have been teachers in France. That resonated with us as educators, that these great teachers' sacrifices held lessons that we could learn in our own lives,” he said. “The feeling of the Holy Spirit was very profound, and something that was certainly felt amongst myself and the other teachers present.”
Now amidst the Advent season, Byrne recounted the beauty of James Marr, the music director of St. Roch Catholic Secondary School in Brampton, performing Brebeuf’s "The Huron Carol" during the veneration. "The Huron Carol" was written in 1643 and is a still sung today.
Catholic educators from the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board and independent Catholic schools attended the Mass and subsequent veneration of the relics, which in the case of Brebeuf are said to provide miraculous healings. The opportunity was given specifically to the Catholic Teachers Guild, with Byrne noting it was a conversation between himself, O’Brien and Toronto Auxiliary Bishop Ivan Camilleri where he was given notice of the unique opportunity this fall.
Brébeuf and his colleagues were martyred by the Iroquois in 1649 during as they ministered to the Hurons. It was only after their martyrdom that so many Huron asked to be baptized into the faith. Despite this, Brebeuf’s image as a saint in the modern-day is often blurred by the politics of our day, to the point of obscurity, something Byrne feels isn’t right.
“The most difficult thing that I'm finding is there is such massive hatred toward Brebeuf. People say that he was a colonialist and something I had to really fight against as I was so offended,” he said. “Even mentioning his name, the school board told us not to. If I were to run this through the school board, I wouldn’t have been allowed to bring (his skull relic).”
He doubled down on the sentiment that Brebeuf’s reputation is unfairly tarnished, making the visit with the missionary’s relics all the more special to him and those attending through the guild.
“They say that (Brebeuf) was forcing conversions but he waited 10 years before his first baptism. All the truths about the saints were being mentioned by O’Brien and it was uplifting for the teachers to feel that. This was about modern-day teachers and how they are still being influenced by great Catholic teachers of the past, all taking place about 80 kilometres from where those men shed their blood at Saint-Ignace,” he said.
Byrne says the impact the experience had on him and many in attendance has not only refused to dissipate but rather extend and grow.
“Brebeuf was known as the person who looked after the little guy and carried the heavy load, and that is precisely what Catholic teachers do each and every day,” he said. “It was something that truly inspired our Catholic teachers to continue to strive to tell the truth of our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ in the context in which we currently live.”
The teachers' guild was established in 2014 as "a way to work on the vocations of teachers independently of the Catholic school system," said Byrne, who is also chaplaincy team leader at St. Paul Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga.
“What I was finding was many teachers coming to me looking for authentic development and so in partnership with the Archdiocese of Toronto’s teachers' guild model, we opened this model in Peel,” he said. “Even with this event, I wouldn't have been able to do it without a group of educators so personally passionate about their faith outside of the school board.”