And the light shines in the darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:5

During the sixteenth century, many Spanish ships crossed the ocean to the New World. Though some monks came to spread the Gospel of Jesus, most of the early Spanish settlers sailed to Central and South America to conquer land and find riches. They cheated the Indians and stole from them. They raided the land and murdered many of its inhabitants.

Meanwhile, the North American continent also continued in darkness. It needed the Light of Christ to brighten it.

Where was God during this century? Had He forgotten His plan? How did He spread His light into this spiritually dark land?

As you will see, God was still present, and He had not forgotten His plan. God’s Holy Spirit was moving quietly through the New World. And He was using some very special people to help Him.

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In the 1500s, Spanish explorers took Franciscan and Dominican monks with them to North America. The explorers brought them for encouragement and prayer. But these monks were very different from the Spanish crews and passengers. They were men of God. When the ships landed, they began to spread the Gospel of Jesus.

The monks were Christian men who had given up everything they owned to enter a religious order. The men lived in a special community called a monastery. They devoted themselves to prayer, study, and work. They separated themselves from ordinary life. Some had come from rich families. Others were from poor families. Some were well educated while others were not. In the monastery, they worked together as brothers in the Lord.

Monks had surrendered many things to become disciples of Jesus. Because of this, they were well suited to come to the New World. Satan could not easily tempt them with riches and glory. Their hearts were not weakened by pride or fear. God knew they would remain steadfast no matter what. He knew they would obey Him and follow His call. So He sent them to North America to bring the natives word of His Son.

After the monks arrived, they established mission towns where life was simple and peaceful. They set up churches and schools and built homes for orphans. Everything centered in the church. The Spaniards and Indians learned to live together. They learned to trust one another, and the Indians learned about the love of Jesus. The mission towns became dots of God’s light in the dark new land.

As these monks worked in the New World, they grew to love it. Riding on horseback, they traveled across the desert and enjoyed its beauty. They watched the desert change colors. It was so quiet that they found it easier to hear God’s voice there. They discovered new places, and their hearts yearned to see more. Some of them became very famous explorers.

The first Spaniard to explore North America was Friar Marcos de Niza. He traveled into what is now New Mexico in 1539. More missionaries followed after him. Hostile Indians killed some of them, but other missionaries soon took their place. By 1630, this area had twenty-five mission towns, and the friars had baptized eighty thousand Indians.

The monks continued exploring. They traveled up the West Coast of America. A Franciscan monk founded San Diego and San Francisco in California. The monks journeyed east. An Austrian missionary founded the first mission in the present state of Arizona. Slowly but surely, the light of Christ was penetrating the New World.

During this time, Spanish explorers also traveled to the eastern coast of North America. In 1513, Ponce de Leon sailed to Florida. The Spanish settled Saint Augustine. They tried to settle other areas too, but the extreme heat and the fierce Seminole Indians stopped them. God did not bless the Spanish explorers as they tried to settle along the eastern coast. God had different plans for that.

Soon missionaries from other European countries arrived in the New World. Jesuits from France journeyed to the northeast. These Jesuits were young scholars and disciples from an order called the Society of Jesus. They had vowed to follow the Lord Jesus. They had promised to remain faithful to one another as brothers in the Lord. The Jesuits were Christian “soldiers” who practiced strong discipline and had a heart for missions.

In 1534, a Jesuit navigator named Jacques Cartier discovered the Saint Lawrence River. This river flows eight hundred miles from west to east through Canada. Today, part of it forms a border between Canada and the United States. In the 1500s, the Algonquin and Iroquois Indians lived there.

Jacques Cartier’s canoe glided silently through the waters of the Saint Lawrence River. It was an early morning in the summer of 1535. A heavy mist hung over the water. The explorer could hear the crickets singing in the pine forests. Once in a while, he heard the hoot of an owl.

This is God’s country, he thought to himself. God Himself has created this beauty for His people to enjoy. Now He has sent me to bring news of His Son to the natives.

Cartier reached the end of the river. He entered a bay which he named the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and he pulled his canoe onto the grassy bank. Then he set out through the forest to find wood.

“I’m going to build a cross,” he said. “Yes, a great big cross. It will bring glory to the name of the Lord.”

Cartier built a large thirty-foot cross to proclaim the message of salvation. He ministered to the Indians along the river, talking with them about Jesus and sharing the Gospel.

The Jesuits traveled through what would become Maine and Nova Scotia. They journeyed to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. Unlike the Spanish explorers, these men treated the Indians with respect. They honored their customs and spread the love of Jesus.

Jacques Marquette was another famous Jesuit missionary. In May 1673, he and Louis Joliet canoed down the mighty Mississippi River. The Mississippi is the longest river in the United States. It begins in Minnesota and flows into the Gulf of Mexico. In 1673, a number of Indian tribes lived along its borders. The Illinois Indians camped along the northern banks, and the Chickasaw and Natchez Indians lived along its southern banks.

Marquette worked and lived with the Illinois Indians. When he died, the Illinois were very sad because they had loved him a great deal. The Indians formed a parade of thirty canoes to carry his body back to the other Jesuits. They wanted to honor this great man of God.

Another famous Jesuit missionary was Jean de Brébeuf. For nineteen years he worked with the Huron Indians in Ontario, Canada. In 1649, the Iroquois Indians attacked one of the Huron towns.

The missionary was kneeling beside an injured Huron boy during the attack.

“Watch out, Father de Brébeuf!” one Huron yelled.

Father de Brébeuf looked behind him. Riding toward him on a black pony was an Iroquois warrior. He wore red and white paint on his face and held a tomahawk in his hand. The Indian was whooping and hollering. Father de Brébeuf stood up and faced the Indian. Then he looked toward heaven. The Indian leaned down and grabbed the priest, pulling him up onto the horse. The missionary had been captured.

The Iroquois Indians hated Father de Brébeuf, and they hated his religion. So they tortured him.

“This is your baptism,” one Iroquois cursed. “Can your Savior save you now?”

Father de Brébeuf kept silent.

“You must scream! We’ll make you scream!” the Iroquois yelled.

But he did not scream, and the Indians finally killed him.

Father de Brébeuf was a martyr for Jesus. He showed the Iroquois Indians he was willing to die for his faith. He made the Indians think about the true God, and Satan was not happy about it. Satan does not like Christian martyrs. They remind him of Christ, who was willing to die for others. They remind him of Jesus’s victory over him on the Cross. It is no wonder Satan had the Indians torture the missionary as they did. Satan wanted him to look weak, but Father de Brébeuf remained strong.

Another French Jesuit priest was Isaac Jogues, a friend and companion of Father de Brébeuf. In 1642, Father Jogues traveled to Quebec to get supplies. On his return, the Iroquois attacked his group. The priest escaped.

But then he thought: I cannot leave the Iroquois souls to be lost. I must go back and win them to Christ. If I suffer for the Lord Jesus, then I suffer. He died for me. I can do no less for Him. I will go back.

Father Jogues returned to his captors, and the Iroquois tortured him. A year later, he escaped again. He traveled back to France, where he became a national hero. But Father Jogues longed to return to the New World and serve the Iroquois, even though they had tortured him.

Father Jogues did return to America, where he founded the “Mission of Martyrs.” Later he, like Jean de Brébeuf, became a martyr for Jesus.

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During the sixteenth century, many missionaries to America died for Jesus. These men brought God’s Light into a land dark with sin. They spread this Light into the Southwest and the Northeast. They lived their lives as witnesses to the love of Jesus. Many faced the darkness of unbelief, torture, and death. But this darkness did not overcome them. They remained faithful to God and to His call upon their lives.

The Light of Christ was beginning to shine in America, but it was still dim. Who would come next, and would they be as faithful to Jesus as the missionary martyrs?