Father Sebastièn Râle, SJ, of Norridgewock: A Saint for Maine? - Portland

Father Râle was a French Jesuit missionary who died 300 years ago in an English attack on the Wabanaki village on the banks of the Kennebec River, where he had lived for 35 years. 

Some people at the time hated him as a foreign agent sent to stir up the Indians. Others immediately proclaimed him a martyr for the faith.

Many questions about his life and mission still linger, but many Catholics even today consider him a saint and martyr. What's the "real story"?

Father Bill Clark, SJ, is a native of Maine, grew up near the site of Fr. Râle's death, and learned the missionary's story as a young boy. As a teacher of theology at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, Fr. Clark has done a lot of teaching and writing about the meaning and purpose of "local church communities," such as parishes (or mission villages!) He has also himself served as a pastor, on the island of Jamaica. All those parts of his own life have come together in his interest in researching Fr. Râle's life and the cause for his canonization as a martyr saint.