St. Jean de Brébeuf was martyred in 1649 while serving as a missionary to the Wendat (Huron) people of New France (the French colonies of North America). During conflict between the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Wendat confederacies, the Jesuit mission of Saint-Louis was raided by the Haudenosaunee, who seized Brébeuf and his fellow missionary Gabriel Lalemant and ritually tortured the missionaries and Native converts to death at the neighboring village of Saint-Ignace. Brébeuf endured stoning, slashing with knives, a collar of red-hot tomahawks, a “baptism” of scalding water, and burning at the stake. Because he showed incredible courage and no signs of pain, his heart was eaten by the Haudenosaunee.