Jean de Brebeuf: Colonial Tensions and Spiritual Healing c. 1649-1660
This case study of Jean de Brébeuf emphasizes the intricacies of colonial tensions and complicates colonial narratives and ideas of civilization hierarchies. Indigenous cannibalism was used as a means of ‘othering’ conducted by Catholic missionaries in the writings of the Jesuit Relations that recount the story of the cannibalization and martyrdom of Brébeuf and Lalement. The prescription of Brébeuf’s relics by a Catholic nun in 17th century Quebec complicates the simplicity of this process by contrasting it with the long standing European medical tradition of human consumption: corpse medicine.