Christian feast days: Canadian Martyrs (Catholic Church in Canada)

The Canadian Martyrs, also known as the North American Martyrs, were eight Jesuit missionaries from Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. They were ritually tortured and killed on various dates in the mid-17th century in Canada, in what is now southern Ontario, and in upstate New York, during the warfare between the Iroquioan tribes the Mohawk and the Wyandot (Huron). They have subsequently been canonized and venerated as martyrs by the Catholic Church.