Located along the banks of the Gulf of Georgia, Lake Huron– and surrounded by forested hills, it was the ancestral territory of the Wendat people, a splinter of the Haudenosaunee tribe. The Vendates were an association of good merchants and skillful farmers who called their Wendake lands.
The most crucial historical conflict was the beaver wars (also known as the wars of the Huron tribe and the Iroquois tribe of the mid-17th century.)
French Jesuits arrived in Wendake in the 17th century. As an global order, the Society of Jesus acted like an army dedicated to spreading Catholicism around the world. They believed, as did their founder Ignacy Loyola, that his education was the first step towards the salvation of his neighbor. but for 1 Italian priest, the people of Sainte-Marie were French. They were not accompanied by any women. Members of the Wendat people were frequent guests of the mission.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the Confederation of Hurons (Vendats) hit a devastating plague of smallpox that killed almost half of its population. This biological disaster coincided with the beaver wars, erstwhile Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) began fierce raids to take control of the fur trade and supplement population losses by taking prisoners, yet distracting Hurons by 1649.
When the outbreak occurred, the nuns began helping the Huron tribe by healing and baptism. After a while, the epidemic expired. The Indians again began active lives of farmers and hunters. As Christians, they attended spiritual services.
At the same time, the forces of the Confederation of the Iroquois (mainly the Mohawks and Seneca war groups) attacked and disembarked the Huron nation (Vendats) during violent territorial conflicts and over fur trade. During these brutal raids on Huronia (south Ontario and northern part of the state of fresh York) they besides captured and killed 8 French Jesuit missionaries.
The Jesuits were tortured and murdered in the mid-17th century during the Huronian-Iroke wars, now frequently called Canadian or North American martyrs.
Ontario authorities care about the memory of Canadian martyrs, six Jesuit priests and 2 lay persons from the close historical Sainte-Marie mission among the Hurons. They were canonized by the Catholic Church in 1930. It is 1 of only six national sanctuaries in Canada and the only located outside Quebec Province.
Pope John Paul II held an crucial pastoral gathering here in September 1984.
