Music on My Mind

Heather Dale, "The Huron Carol". The song, the first Canadian Christmas carol, is said to have been written originally by St. Jean de Brébeuf in Wyandot, the Huron language; it was written down later by an associate and translated into French. This version is a gorgeous mix of Wyandot, French, and English for the first two stanzas.

Jean de Brébeuf, SJ, was ministering to his Huron flock when the village in which he was staying was raiding by Iroquois; he, St. Gabriel Lalemant, and some Huron converts were tortured and killed. He was canonized by Pius XI in 1930 and is commemorated on October 19 as one of the Canadian martyrs, or North American martyrs, as we say in the U.S.