Historical Overview of Catholic Missionaries in Canada

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Catholic Missions In Canada

Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada

address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2

phone: 416-934-3424 toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642) fax: 416-934-3425

web:www.cmic.info Charitable Registration (BN) # 119220531RR0001


Lesson 2: Historical Overview of Catholic Missionaries in Canada

* This lesson on the historical overview of Catholic Missionaries in Canada was jointly written by

author and writer, Laura Mackinnon, M.A., a former religious education teacher for the Toronto

Catholic School Board and vice principal for the Calgary Catholic School Board, and by author and

writer, Dr. Christine Mader, a Canadian theologian, educator, and consultant, with a doctorate in

theology from the University of Toronto.

Lesson Objective:

Students will study the history of Catholic Missionaries in Canada, identifying and reading about key

missionary figures, and following their progress as they seek to evangelize the inhabitants of what is

now Canada, from east coast to west coast and north to the Arctic.

Materials/Procedure:

The historical overview which follows is not meant to be comprehensive – this would be an impossible

task in the given space. Rather, what follows is intended to provide examples from the history of

missionary work in Canada’s past so students will gain an understanding of the types of activities

undertaken, the involvement in missionary work of the ordained (secular and order priests), and of lay

people (including those who were members of religious orders and congregations of men and women),

the kinds of hardships missionaries faced, the successes and failures in their work, and their ministry

with the native peoples and other inhabitants of the areas in which they worked.

Content-Lesson: (This document may be reproduced.)

The teacher may provide copies of this historical overview or create a slide show of it. Once the students

have read the historical summary, the appropriate research questions/activities can be assigned to them

on an individual or group basis.

Catholic Missionaries - A Historical Overview

From the time when Jacques Cartier first visited the Atlantic coasts of North America in 1534 until the

time when Christian missionaries went into the Yukon with the gold rush in 1897, missionary activity

usually coincided with exploration, colonization, the fisheries and fur trade,

and immigration. Missionaries sometimes even preceded fur traders as new

areas were explored. They had a twofold mission: first, to evangelize those

in the fishing and fur trade as well as the native peoples with whom they

had established contact, and second, to minister to the unchurched

immigrants to the New World, as well as to the relatively small group of

French settlers who remained permanently in New France.1

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“Church” and “state” in Western European countries, whether societies were Protestant or Catholic,

were closely aligned. The manner in which societies were organized in New France was supported both

by the French institutional church and by the reigning monarch, his court and administrative bodies.

Religious and commercial forces were closely intertwined. For example, as early as 1541, an effort was

made to colonize the New World with Protestant Huguenots from France, who were also highly

esteemed merchants and investors, but the attempt failed miserably and the Huguenots, realizing they

could continue their involvement with the fisheries and fur trade in the New World without living there,

remained in France for the most part.2

That France was given an opportunity to explore and exploit the New World was taken as a sign that the

peoples there were meant by God to receive the light of the Gospel message.3 The mission effort was

urged on by several ideas: that the discovery of the New World would bring into being the “Third Age

of the Holy Ghost,” something mystics had spoken of since the twelfth century; that the native peoples

were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel; that the rapid conversion of these new peoples and

cultures would restore the Church to its pristine form in the time of the Apostles and that this would

precede the end of the world and precipitate the Second Coming of Christ.4 For its part, the Church

developed through its intercultural exposure.5

The first

missionaries

came as

chaplains on

board

fishing and

fur-trading

ships from

the Atlantic

coasts of

France.6 The

French,

under the

sponsorship

of King

Francis I,

had often

visited the

coasts of

America

since 1524

when John

Verazzani

received a commission to explore the American continent.7 Jacques Cartier, having himself a strong

desire to save souls, had urged King Francis I to support missionary work designed to bring the native

peoples of the New World to the Catholic faith.8 Sailing through the Strait of Belle Isle between

Newfoundland and Labrador, and past the northern coast of Prince Edward Island, which he took to be a

part of the mainland, he reached the east coast of North America, at the Baie de Gaspé, and immediately

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erected a large cross, presenting the Iroquois Indians he met there (whose chief was Donnacona of

Stadacona, and who were hunting seal) with prayer beads and other gifts. On his second expedition,

Cartier brought two priest chaplains with him – Dom Guillaume Le Breton and Dom Anthoine, who

were most likely members of the Benedictine Order.9 Still, the efforts to evangelize the Amerindians

were, for the most part, unsuccessful at this point. There is some suggestion that Donnacona and his two

sons may have been the three unidentified native men who were baptized in France after they were taken

there by Cartier, but this cannot be solidly substantiated.10

In 1588, the nephews of Jacques Cartier received a document from King Henry III of France stipulating

that, wherever they had a trade monopoly, only the Catholic faith was to be established.11

French

colonization in New France began in earnest only a few years after Henry IV of France promulgated the

Edict of Nantes in 1598. With this, the French Huguenots (Reformed or Calvinist Protestants who were

largely traders and merchants by profession) gained some measure of the freedom they had long pursued

in France. The Edict also gave Roman Catholics and the

Protestant Huguenots from France similar rights in the New

World. The letters-patent provided by King Henry III to the

nephews of Jacques Cartier, concerning the establishment of the

Catholic faith in areas where they held a trade monopoly, was

now also applied by King Henry IV to areas where Protestant

Huguenots held their own trade monopolies.12

Consequently, in

the early period of colonization both the Protestants and the

Roman Catholic missionaries participated in the evangelization

of settlers to Canada.

In 1604, Pierre Du Gua de Monts, a Huguenot officer and the

royal commissioner in New France, established a colony in the

new land, called Acadia, bringing with him two Catholic priests

and also a Huguenot minister. He

could justify bringing both

denominations of clergy with him

because, as a sea captain, he was

responsible for the spiritual care of his crew on any vessel he commanded.13

Unfortunately, one priest and the Huguenot minister died in an epidemic.14

In 1610, a secular priest (not a member of an order or congregation) –

Father Jessé Fléché – accompanied another Huguenot merchant expedition,

evangelizing and baptizing 141 natives within the year, including Chief

Membertou and his family.15

Samuel de Champlain was on this voyage and the discord between the two

Christian camps disturbed him greatly.16

He also noted that the business

interests of the merchants were such that they could not really be trusted

with the support of missionary work.17

While the control of trade remained in the hands of the Huguenot

merchants, it was difficult for Catholics to colonize or evangelize effectively.18

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In 1611, after surmounting roadblocks placed by the Huguenots who opposed their transport to Acadia,

two Jesuit priests, Fathers Pierre Biard and Énemond Massé, set out by ship for Port Royal.19

They were

resolved not to baptize adults who were not well catechized first, and expended much time and energy

learning the new languages, compiling dictionaries and grammars to help them, and translating the

Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments to catechize the Mi’kmaws.20

In New

France, they were among the first priests to proclaim the Gospel to the First Nations Peoples.

Four years later (1615), Samuel de Champlain, who was deeply committed to the evangelization of the

First Nations Peoples in New France, sought out Recollet missionaries (a branch of the Roman Catholic

Franciscan Order) from France to do missionary work among the Montagnais near Tadoussac in the St.

Lawrence Valley region, and among the Hurons near Georgian Bay.21

The Huguenots tried to dissuade

them.22

Nevertheless, Fathers Joseph Le Caron, John Dolbeau, Denis Jamet and Brother Pacifique

Duplessis sailed with Champlain to New France in April of that year.23

Father Denis Jamet (the Recollet

superior) remained near Quebec, constructing a mission house in 1621. Father Jean Dolbeau went to

instruct the Montagnais tribe at Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, labouring to prepare a

“Dictionary of the Montagnais Language.” Father Joseph Le Caron went West to begin the first mission

among the Hurons. As part of his efforts, he prepared dictionaries of the Huron, Algonkian, and

Montagnais languages.24

Brother Duplessis went to Trois-Rivières, where he preached the Gospel, cared

for the sick, and became the first schoolteacher of children in New France.25

Mission posts were also

established at Gaspé for the Montagnais, at Miscou, New Brunswick for the Mi’kmaw population, and at

Georgian Bay for the Hurons. The New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Gaspé missions were served by

Father Dolbeau.26

In 1619, more missionaries arrived, authorized by the Archbishop of Bordeaux to begin missionary work

in Acadia.27

All did not go well for the missionaries, however. That year, a missionary initiative was cut

short by the death of one of the Recollet priests and by the dissolving of an association that had provided

financial support for the missionary journey. Both the Recollets and the Jesuits complained to King

Louis XIII about the Huguenot attempts to block their efforts at evangelization.28

With growing antagonisms between Catholics and Huguenots, the danger of religious strife in the colony

led the French government to make a charter in 1627, which stipulated that no colonists should be sent

out to New France who were not Roman Catholics. This prohibition remained in effect during the

remaining period of French rule. As a result, very few Protestants settled in New France, leaving it

almost exclusively Roman Catholic, for an extended period of time.29

In 1622, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith was created in Rome to oversee the

activities of the foreign missions in areas of the world, such as New France, where there were not yet

bishops with jurisdiction.30

This took the responsibility for such activities out of the hands of the

monarchs of European countries, a task they had exercised for more than one hundred and twenty-five

years.31

In 1623, after a brief visit to Montreal, Le Caron returned to the Hurons with two new missionaries:

Father Nicholas Viel and Brother Gabriel Sagard. Brother Sagard would become the first historian of the

early Catholic Missions in Huronia.32

Father Viel, on a trip to Quebec to obtain items needed at St.

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Joseph Mission, was murdered and thrown into the rapids of the River Des Prairies by his native

companions.33

By 1624, Acadia had fallen into the hands of the Scottish. The Jesuits arrived in Quebec in 1625 to add

support and new energy to the missionary efforts of the Recollet priests. The first to arrive were Fathers

Charles Lalemant (superior), Father Jean de Brébeuf (who continued Le Caron’s efforts with the

Hurons), Father Énemond Massé, who had already spent time among the Mi’kmaw of Nova Scotia, and

Brothers François Charton and Gilbert Burel.34

Three more Jesuits arrived in 1626.

Father Énemond Massé lived with the Recollets and completed the residence and seminary project

begun by the Recollets at Notre-Dame-des-Anges, near Quebec. Initially, Father Brébeuf was sent to

live with the Montagnais to learn their language and culture, but in the following year (1626), he was

sent to the Hurons, who had a different language and culture.35

The Hurons were a sedentary, agricultural tribe, which made it easier to provide them with additional

education and to establish a native church.36

Father Brébeuf, inspired by the love of God, had an attitude

of sincere affection towards the native people he served, believing that Christ had paid the price of

redemption for them also. He urged his companions to enter into the culture as much as possible, eating

what appeared unpleasant to them without taking notice, out of love.37

Unlike the Recollets, the Jesuits

thought the nomadic way of life of the native peoples could be compatible with the practice of Christian

life, as long as they carried the Gospel of Christ in their hearts, prayed regularly, and availed themselves

of the sacraments when it was possible.38

Although the first English settlement in Canada was established in Cupids (Cuper’s Cove),

Newfoundland, by John Guy in 1610, it was not until 1627 that the first Catholic priests made

Newfoundland their permanent home. Both secular and Jesuit priests came with Lord Baltimore to

Ferryland, serving his Avalon settlement there from 1627-1629.39

Bishop Jean St. Vallier of Quebec

would formally establish a Roman Catholic parish at Plaisance (Placentia) in 1689, making a month-

long pastoral visit there. Originally, missionary priests had served the community at Plaisance since

1662. Now, the parish was served by Recollet Fathers of St. Denis in France and, in 1701, by the

Recollets of Brittany.40

It has been suggested that the real discoverers of Prince Edward Island were John Cabot and his son

Sebastian, who, with a commission from King Henry VII of England, voyaged to the area in 1497.

However, John Verazzani claimed possession of the entire region of his voyage in 1524 for France, and

Jacques Cartier, too, in 1534 laid claim to the territory.41

For the next century, France really made no attempts to colonize the Island, which was already

populated by small numbers of Mi’qmaw. Only with the loss of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and

Hudson Bay Territory at the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, did the French begin to increase efforts to

populate St. John’s Island (which would become Prince Edward Island).

After 1719, immigrants began to arrive from France and from neighbouring Nova Scotia. Father René

Charles De Breslay, a Sulpician, was the first priest to set foot on St. John’s Island, in April, 1721.

Father Marie Anselme de Metivier, also a Sulpician, joined Father De Breslay in his mission.42

They





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lived at Port La Joie, building a small church there, named for St. John the Evangelist. The continuing

spiritual care of the Island was given over to the Franciscans two years later.43

By 1628, the Edict of Nantes no longer had any force in Canada.44

When the English occupied Quebec,

however, between 1629 and 1632, the missions there were almost entirely abandoned. Only two

missionaries remained in the whole of New France at this time.45

Because Champlain was able to show

that Quebec had been captured after the Treaty of Suse had been signed, ending hostilities between

England and France, a new mission arrived in Canada in 1632.46

The Capuchins, another branch of the Franciscan Order, were assigned the restored colony as their

mission field, but the Jesuits also quickly returned to Quebec (under the direction of Father Paul Le

Jeune), becoming very soon the sole successors of the Recollets in Canada.47

Between 1636 and 1640,

they devoted much of their time to the education of the children of First Nations families and of the

French colonists.48

They also extended their missionary work to Huronia with the return of Father

Brébeuf and two other priests to the region in 1633.49

While the Recollets had been the first to establish a relationship with the Hurons, the Jesuits, by 1639,

had established a permanent presence in Huronia which would serve as a missionary headquarters and

model of Amerindian Catholic community, elements of which would include an experimental farm, a

commercial and administrative centre, and a fortress.50

In 1642, Iroquois attacked the Huron mission and

Father Isaac Jogues, refusing to leave his Huron converts, was captured and horribly mutilated. He

managed to escape and continued his missionary work among the Hurons, but he, along with his lay

companion, Jean de la Lande, were murdered by the Iroquois in 1646.51

By 1648, there were ten mission stations within Huron territory, although tensions remained within the

Huron confederacy since not all tribes subscribed to Christianity, and some adamantly opposed it.52

All

this would come to an end, however, with the decimation of the Huron people and the murder, too, of

the Jesuit missionaries by the Iroquois in 1649.53

Religious communities of women also played a significant role in the missionary effort in New France.

Especially in the larger towns, they exercised ministries of educating and healing, both for the native

peoples of the land and for the colonists. The Ursulines came to Quebec in 1639, their mission

(including a school) having had its beginnings in the 1633 and 1635 mystical experiences of one of their

cloistered nuns, Mother Marie de l’Incarnation, whose prophetic visions laid out an apostolate for

women in the New World.54

There was much to do there which required financial support. Donations

were dwindling, but the needs were growing, so life was very

difficult.55

Also in 1639, the Hospital Nuns of Dieppe arrived and founded

a hospital at Sillery (near Quebec). An epidemic was raging at

the time. By 1646, however, the sisters had decided to move to

Quebec proper.56

Another hospital had been opened in Montreal

in 1642 by Jeanne Mance, a lay woman and nurse by profession,

with connections to the Company of the Holy Sacrament, and by

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1659, this hospital was operated by the Hospital Nuns of La Flèche (or the Hospitallers of St. Joseph).57

In 1653, Marguerite Bourgeoys, with her association of devout women, “the Sisters of the

Congregation,” undertook a ministry of teaching, especially for the poor, in Montreal.58

She also

inspired the building of Notre-Dame-de-Bons-Secours, Montreal’s first stone church.59

By 1644, the mission of the Recollets to Acadia had finished.60

By 1655, all

the Capuchins had been forced to leave Port Royal, except for Father

Léonard de Chartres, who was soon murdered by soldiers. In the meantime,

however, segregated communities of native peoples had been established at

Tadoussac (organized in this case by the native people themselves) and at

Sillery, near Quebec (organized by the Jesuits), where 167 converted and

domiciled natives, under the patronage and control of the missionaries,

were somewhat protected from the evil influences of the brandy trade, and

catechumens had some relief from the influence of sorcery.61

When the terrible news of the Iroquois assault on the Hurons and the

destruction of the Jesuit missions in Huronia arrived, these communities

served as places of refuge for persecuted native converts.62

In 1654, a Mohawk expedition attacked and

captured five or six hundred such refugees on the island of Orleans, near Sillery and Quebec City.63

Bishop Laval, the first bishop of Quebec, originally came to New France in 1659 as apostolic vicar with

the powers – but not the title – of bishop (which he received in 1674).64

He was an ardent supporter of

the Society of Jesus and he exerted a profound influence on the government of the colony.65

Laval made

the diocesan clergy responsible for service to the French inhabitants of the region and left the

Amerindian missions in the care of the Jesuits.66

In 1663, Bishop Laval was given a seat on the

governing Sovereign Council of Quebec, a body which implemented the political, economic, social and

religious policies of New France.67

Throughout Bishop Laval’s episcopacy, the Iroquois opposed the

growth of Christianity and there was open conflict between them and the struggling Christian

communities. Only in 1701, at Montreal, did the Iroquois accept conditions of peace.68

From an early date, religious orders, such as the Jesuits and the Sulpicians, acquired valuable land grants

from the new government, around Quebec, Trois-Rivières, Tadoussac and Montreal. In 1657, the first

Sulpician clergy arrived in New France and, in 1663, were given title to land in Montreal, (also

inheriting the large debt and disorderly finances of the outpost), but “Ville Marie,” as Montreal was

called, had been established much earlier (in 1642) as a Christian community devoted to evangelizing

the Amerindians.69

Prior to its founding, lay Catholics, concerned that, after thirty years, not enough had been done to

evangelize the native peoples in this area, either settled there or put pressure on the Crown and trading

companies to remedy the situation. Henri de Lévis, Duke of Ventadour, for example, as early as 1625,

tried to move the colony away from its single-minded commercial interests towards a more intentional

religious purpose and sought financial backing for the venture by organizing the Company of the Holy

Sacrament, a group of lay aristocrats with surplus wealth that could be directed towards the missionary

effort. Largely through their efforts, including providing the funding to purchase land on the island of

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Montreal, “Ville Marie” came to be.70

Jeanne Mance had volunteered to join the expedition of Paul de

Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve (hired by the Company of the Holy Sacrament) headed for Montreal

in 1642. There, she would begin to care for the sick in makeshift “clinic” facilities which, in 1645,

became the hospital, known later as Montreal’s “Hôtel-Dieu.”71

Between 1657 and 1666, Iroquois raids were heavy in the area and financial support for the outpost

dropped significantly. When Louis XIV came to the throne in 1661, the Company of the Holy

Sacrament (as well as the Society of Notre Dame of Montreal, which also had provided significant

support for the colony) were looked upon with suspicion more than admiration. The Sulpicians seemed a

natural choice to take on the responsibility (and the debt) for the troubled outpost, which became a royal

colony in 1663.72

Early missionaries established missions among the Algonquin, Huron and Iroquois tribes. The Jesuits,

for example, were able to move quickly into Cape Breton, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Tadoussac and Lac

St. Jean area, Iroquois and Abernakis county, and as far west as Lake Superior and Illinois country,

finally reaching the Hudson Bay region.73

The Abenakis, an Algonquin nation, requested a missionary and, in 1646, Jesuit Father Gabriel

Druillettes set out to serve them. It took him only three months to learn the Algonkian language and he

began to visit the Abenaki villages and English settlements, eventually going by sea to the Penobscot

River where the Capuchins were doing missionary work. He won the Abenakis over to Christian faith by

his preaching, his gift of healing and especially by visiting their families, going hunting with them and

sharing their difficulties and challenges. Father Druillettes carried on missionary work in Maine in 1650,

returning to Quebec in 1651. When, after many years of trying, and at the age of sixty, he finally reached

Sault Ste-Marie in 1670, he set the stage for the development of the western missions. Father Druillettes

returned to Quebec in 1680, where he soon died at age 70.74

In the same year, two Jesuits – Vincent and Jacques Bigot – were appointed to care for the Abenakis’

spiritual interests at the village of Sillery. Because the land near this St. Joseph’s Mission had been

farmed so much and was worn out, a new land concession of thirty-six square miles on the Chaudiere

River was sought. It was granted in July, 1683 to these

Catholic missionaries and the St. Francis Mission was

established. These brothers devoted their lives to the

welfare of the First Nations Peoples in both missions for

twenty years.75

By the end of the seventeenth century, all the formal

structures – including schools, hospitals, poorhouses,

seminaries, a cathedral chapter, an ecclesiastical court and

a college – were in place and functioning, due in large part

to the generous financial contributions of pious people,

especially wealthy widows.76

The drive to find a western

sea which had inspired Jacques Cartier and others,

however, continued to live restlessly in explorers of the

eighteenth century.








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Sieur Pierre Gaultier de la Vérendrye, for example, proposed an expedition of discovery to Quebec

Governor Charles De Beauharnois, and was commissioned to go west with a view to building a post on

Lake Ouinipigon, which would benefit French commerce and facilitate the locating of the long-elusive

western sea.77

Jesuit Father Jean Pierre Aulneau accompanied him on one of his later trips, in June 1735,

for the purpose of seeking out native peoples not encountered before. The “Mandans,” as they were

known, were thought to be sedentary. They farmed corn, owned horses, and hunted buffalo. Father

Aulneau was to learn their language and provide information concerning their customs.78

In October, they reached Fort Saint-Charles on the western shore of Lake of the Woods in Cree country.

The Assiniboines were also in the same general area. The expedition was unsuccessful, however. First,

the nephew of La Vérendrye succumbed to illness. Then, it was discovered that the outposts were very

poorly provisioned and an emergency expedition for supplies had to be dispatched. Father Aulneau was

among the party of nineteen men who were en route for provisions when they were attacked and

massacred by a band of Sioux Indians in June 1736.79

In 1741, the youthful Jesuit Father Claude-Godegroy Coquart took

Aulneau’s place as the chaplain of the expedition. They left

Montreal in June of that year but Coquart got only as far as

Michilimackinac where he remained until August 1743. Then, he

rejoined La Vérendrye at Fort La Reine (what is now Portage-la-

Prairie, Manitoba). Coquart was the first missionary to go as far

west as present-day Manitoba. He returned to Montreal with La

Vérendrye at the beginning of 1744. There they experienced limited

success evangelizing the First Nations Peoples.80

In 1749, Sulpician Father François Picquet successfully established

missions along the St. Lawrence River, namely at Ogdensburg

(situated between

Montreal and Kingston),

which housed 300

Iroquois, Huron and other

natives. Having had the

main goal of winning over to France all native peoples living

south of the Great Lakes, he worked hard to learn their

languages and customs and, in the course of his ministry among

them, he served as military chaplain, adviser, strategist and

negotiator during the war between the French and the English in

the mid 1700s.81

At the same time, another Sulpician Father Jean Mathevet

mastered the Algonkian language, writing in that language a

grammar (dated 1761), sermons, a sacred history, and a life of

Christ. He ministered to the mixed congregation at the Lac-des-

Deux-Montagnes (Lake of Two Mountains) mission at Oka,




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first as a deacon in 1746 and then as a priest after 1747. With Father François Picquet, he was a military

chaplain also. He served the Algonkians and later the Iroquois his whole life.82

Another successful Jesuit missionary of that period was Father Jean-Baptiste de La Brosse. He was

ordained in 1753 and lived at Quebec until 1755 when he went to Acadia to minister to the Abenakis,

Malecites, and Acadians of the Saint John River region in New Brunswick. In July 1755, the deportation

of the Acadians by British forces began and Father La Brosse went with the Acadians who fled into the

forest, encouraging them and helping them to flee. He himself narrowly escaped capture by the British

in March 1756. In the middle of 1766, Father La Brosse was appointed missionary to the Montagnais

who inhabited an immense territory on the north side of the St. Lawrence River.

Four year later, Father La Brosse was given the responsibility of the south side of the St. Lawrence also

as well as Acadia, Prince Edward Island (St. John’s Island at the time), and Cape Breton Island. When

another priest took over his responsibilities for the Acadians and Mi’kmaws, Father La Brosse devoted

his energies to helping the Montagnais nurture and develop a more humane Christian community,

teaching them to read and write, forming them in the catechism, the liturgy, singing and the basics of

music. He also trained catechists to carry on his work in his absence. He prepared spellers and prayer

books in the Montagnais language, establishing a church respectful of their language which could be

self-sustaining even after his death. At least 15 parish registers from parishes in the area indicate he

ministered also to the French on both sides of the St. Lawrence and to the Acadians at Baie des

Chaleurs.83

The conquest of Canada by the British in

1763 influenced religious history in New

France. The Royal Proclamation of 1763

instituted English laws which had the

purpose of making the French and First

Nations Catholic population of New

France embrace English Protestantism.

Although those who were already

Catholic were tolerated in the exercise of

their religion, a Roman Catholic

hierarchy was absolutely prohibited. A

Bishop consecrated in France because

the British wanted nothing to do with

such an ordination in Canada, was

recognized only as the “superintendent of

the Romish Church.”84

The British adopted a policy of giving

parishes only to Catholic clergy who

married (not one French pastor took up

the invitation). The new laws also

determined that, before taking public

office, Catholics must become Protestant,


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denying distinctive elements of their Catholic Christian faith. The inhabitants did not give in to this

British pressure either, and the British governors, realizing they could not govern without “Canadien”

representatives, overlooked the law. The British government forbade the Jesuits and Recollets from

accepting novices, ensuring the orders’ eventual demise.85

The following year, however, the Quebec Act of 1774 was passed, which reinstated the civil and

religious rights of the Canadiens. It gave the Roman Catholic Church the legal right to collect tithes,

which put Catholics in a solid position in New France again. The exclusive claim of the Church of

England to be an established Church in the British North American colonies was defeated. Roman

Catholics now needed only to pledge allegiance to the Crown and acknowledge the right of the

Protestant bishop of Quebec to function. Even with this concession, however, inhabitants would not take

the new Oath of Loyalty and Governor Carleton chose not to enforce it.86

From the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries, Catholics of Scottish and Irish descent

emigrated to British North America, especially to Newfoundland, the eastern shores of Nova Scotia,

Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island and Upper Canada as well. Seeking clergy of their own

ethnicities to administer the sacraments and create schools, the Scots and the Irish made it necessary for

the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to strategize in a new way about the pastoral

care of these new arrivals. The monopoly of the French clergy in Canada developed into a culturally

diverse ministerial force, a pattern which was to continue throughout the nineteenth century.87

The

religious landscape was also becoming more diverse. Since the end of the seventeenth century,

Christians of other denominations besides Roman Catholic were coming to what is now eastern Canada.

Included in the mix were German Lutherans, Swiss and French Huguenots, Presbyterians from Scotland,

Northern Ireland and Pennsylvania, as well as Baptists and Quakers in small numbers. This situation of

denominational pluralism enjoyed periods of both relative tolerance and open conflict in the eighteenth

century.88

In the meantime, expansion towards

the West continued. In 1811, the Earl

of Selkirk founded his “Red River”

colony, made up primarily of Scottish

Presbyterians and Irish Catholics, at

the junction of the Assiniboine and

Red Rivers in what is now known as

Manitoba.89

Conflicts over the fur

trade between the Hudson’s Bay

Company and the North West

Company, which had resulted in

armed confrontation and deaths,

urged the Earl of Selkirk and his local

governor, Miles Macdonell, to ask the Bishop of Quebec to send

Catholic priests to the colony for the sake of peace.90

In response,

Bishop Plessis sent two missionaries in 1818, Fathers Joseph-Norbert

Provencher and Sévère Dumoulin, and a seminarian, Guillaume Edge,

to help the colony.91

Father Provencher was made vicar-general of

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Quebec for the Northwest mission in 1820 and, based at Red River, he established the parish of Saint-

Boniface.92

The North West Company strongly opposed its establishment since it was erected opposite

Fort Douglas, the headquarters of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and this was a key area for the

Company’s transportation and supply network.93

Nevertheless, Father Provencher established a mission at Saint-Boniface in Manitoba and Father

Dumoulin settled at Pembina in North Dakota, both priests ministering to the Métis there. The Hudson’s

Bay Company was unhappy with this latter mission because it was in the United States and because the

Company had been trying to encourage the Métis to settle as one group in the Red River district near

Saint-Boniface instead. Saint-Boniface, however, was plagued with locusts which had destroyed its

crops and Pembina was much nearer the buffalo herds. Father Provencher, made the first Bishop of the

West in 1820, was able to forestall the abandonment of Pembina in favour of Fort Douglas and the

Saint-Boniface mission until 1823, after which time, Father Dumoulin returned to Lower Canada after a

great deal of success teaching and evangelizing in the Pembina area.94

Nevertheless, language barriers

and the shortage of ministers meant little progress was made, between 1818 and 1833, towards the goal

of evangelizing the native populations in the region. 95

The situation was to improve in some respect when, in 1831, Father

George-Antoine Bellecourt arrived at the Red River colony from

Lower Canada. He immediately undertook the task of learning the

native language of the Saulteaux or Chippewa, a form of Algonkian

which he had studied at the mission of Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes in

Quebec. He prepared both a grammar and a dictionary of their

language and possibly a catechism. In 1833 he founded Baie-Saint-

Paul Mission on the Assiniboine River which, by 1839, was well

established. Later, he set up missions on the Winnipeg River, at Rainy

Lake, and at Duck Bay on Lake Winnipegosis. Bellecourt was a strong

advocate for the Métis, supporting the recognition of title to their land,

their voice in government, and their rights as natives of the northwest

to a free trade in furs. Eventually, he

took their side in a dispute with the

Hudson Bay Company, which made

him something of a marked man with

the Governor of the region. Bellecourt

left the northwest in 1859 on vacation

and he was not permitted to return.96

In 1833, as a subdeacon, Jean-Baptiste Thibault made his way to Saint-

Boniface and began to study the Cree and Chippewa languages.

Ordained to the priesthood in September of that year, he was soon left

in charge of the Saint-Boniface mission while Bishop Provencher

sought additional missionaries in Lower Canada and in Europe.97

In the

spring of 1842, however, the 32-year-old was sent by Bishop

Provencher to begin the Catholic evangelization of the northwest

prairies as far as the Rocky Mountains. A farmer’s son, he travelled on


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horseback, the first missionary to use this form of transportation, this having been necessitated by the

Hudson Bay Company’s refusal to provide Catholic missionaries transport.98

He reached Fort Edmonton

in June of 1842 after a six-month ride, and was able to preach the Good News to members of the Cree

and the Blackfoot tribes, baptizing more than 300 of the French Canadians, Métis and natives in the area

and conducting twenty marriages.99

Father Thibault is especially well known for founding the mission at

Lac Ste Anne (known as “Spirit Lake” to the Cree) in Alberta. He also undertook further travels,

encountering the Déné Indians as he made his way. As early as 1844, Thibault had reached Cold Lake,

Lac La Biche, and Île-à-la-Crosse where he was well received.100

In 1837, a young French-Canadian priest living in Trois-Pistoles, Quebec –

Father Modeste Demers, travelled with Bishop Provencher to the Red

River settlement. The following year, Bishop Provencher received

permission from Governor Simpson to send Father Demers and also

Father François-Norbert Blanchet from the Diocese of Montreal to start

a Catholic mission on the Cowlitz River, in what is now British

Columbia. They were the first Catholic priests in the area since

Spanish friars had departed fifty years earlier. In 1841, Father Demers

visited the lower Fraser River area as far as Fort Langley. When the two

priests learned there was also a Jesuit mission nearby, they met Jesuit

Father de Smet and worked with

him to develop a strategy for their missionary work in the region.101

Father Demers was a fine linguist of both European and native

languages. In 1842, he set out on a long missionary trip, journeying

hundreds of kilometres up the Columbia and Fraser Rivers, reaching

Stuart Lake and wintering at Fort Alexandria before returning to his

base on the Cowlitz River in April 1843. He was the first Christian

missionary in the area.102

Both Blanchet and Demers were appointed

bishops, of Oregon and Victoria, respectively. Father Demers was

consecrated bishop of Victoria in 1846 and took up the work of

evangelization on Vancouver Island, without having a single priest to

assist him.103

However, the Oblate Fathers arrived in Victoria in 1847 to

remedy this situation. Bishop Demers also

recruited four Sisters of St. Anne, a

congregation of women devoted to

teaching schoolchildren. Sisters Salomé

Valois, Angèle Gauthier, Mary Land, and Marie-Louise Brasseur arrived

in June of 1858 and, within three weeks, had opened a school for girls. To

get to Victoria, the sisters journeyed by train from Montreal to New York,

by ship to Panama, by train across the isthmus of Panama, and by steamer

up the west coast.104

The Sisters of Providence (founded by the widow

Émilie Tavernier-Gamelin) and the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and

Mary, both new Montreal congregations, arrived (through Oregon) around

the same time (1856 and 1859, respectively) to add their services to the

Bishop’s efforts.105


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In 1845, Jesuit Father John Nobili was commissioned to visit the northern posts of the British Columbia

mainland that Father Demers had already evangelized. He went to Fort St. James, Fort George, Stuart

Lake, and Fort Kilmars on Babine Lake (a new contact) on his excursions.106

Meanwhile, Father de

Smet, his confrère, crossed the Rockies and wintered in Fort Edmonton, returning via Jasper the

following spring, evangelizing and baptizing along the way.107

Twenty-seven-year-old Father Jean Edouard Darveau studied the Saulteaux language for six months

under the tutelage of Father Bellecourt, after which he set out for Duck Bay on Lake Winnipegosis in

what is Northern Manitoba today. When he arrived, he discovered a rival missionary station had been set

up by a Protestant minister of the Church Missionary Society. The rivalry between Christian factions

caused the native chief there some confusion and he judged that it was better to wait for the two

Christians to agree before following the way preached by either of them. Unfortunately, Father Darveau

was murdered in Le Pas in 1844 by natives who believed the prayers of the Catholic missionary were

powerful in a negative way and that Father Darveau was responsible for an epidemic that had recently

hit the tribe.108

While secular (diocesan) priests had laid the groundwork for the

evangelization of the Canadian Northwest, the Missionary Oblates of

Mary Immaculate (Oblates), beginning in 1845, provided the lion’s

share of personnel, and a certain stability and unity of approach for

the missionary work taken on among the native people there.109

The Oblates were originally founded in France in 1816 under the

name “Society of Missionaries of Provence” to evangelize the poor

and to reinvigorate through religious exercises and preaching a

failing Catholic spirit in southern

France.110

In 1826, however, their

founder and superior general,

Eugène de Mazenod, sought

pontifical approval for the order

and its rules and proposed a name

change to “Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate” at the same

time.111

The Oblates, along with the Sisters of Charity of Montreal

(Grey Nuns), had been invited to Saint-Boniface in the mid-1840s by

Bishop Provencher. The Grey Nuns had opened a convent and boys’

and girls’ schools in the parish at Saint-Boniface in 1844. Two

Oblates – a twenty-one-year-old subdeacon Alexandre-Antonin

Taché, who longed to evangelize the Northwest, and Father Pierre

Aubert, a former directory of a minor seminary in France, now

devoted to preaching – arrived the next year with a view to

evangelizing systematically the Canadian Northwest.112


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Taché, ordained to the priesthood within months of his arrival at Saint-Boniface, set out with a diocesan

priest, Father Louis-François Laflèche, to begin a new Catholic mission (St. John the Baptist) fifteen

hundred kilometres northwest of Red River, at Île-à-la-Crosse in northern Saskatchewan.113

From that

base of operations, Father Taché travelled in the spring of 1847 northeast five hundred kilometres to

Reindeer Lake (Lac Caribou), via Green Lake and Lac La Ronge (Saskatchewan), and later that year to

Lake Athabaska at Fort Chipewyan, six hundred kilometres north of Île-à-la-Crosse.114

When Oblate

Father Henri Faraud joined him at Lake Athabaska in July 1848, Faraud was put in charge of the

permanent mission there (the mission of La Nativité), which was to serve now as a new base for further

Oblate missionary work in the Peace River, Fond du Lac (at the eastern end of Lake Athabaska), and

Great Slave Lake areas. Louis Dubé, the first Canadian Oblate lay brother to serve in the Northwest

missions, joined them in July 1849.115

Recalled to Saint-Boniface in 1851, Father Taché was ordained

coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Saint-Boniface (Father Laflèche had been asked first, but had

adamantly refused and was also quite ill), and was also named

superior of the Oblates of the Northwest.116

Upon the death of Bishop Provencher in 1853, Bishop Taché

replaced him and Father Vital-Justin Grandin – also an Oblate –

was named as his coadjutor Bishop. He had learned the native

languages of the area and had spent considerable time at Fort

Chipewyan and Île-à-la-Crosse, as well as in the settlements

further afield. Grandin had joined the Oblates after being

rejected by the Seminary of Foreign Missions in Paris due to a

weak constitution. He served for forty-eight years in missionary

work in North America.117

In 1861, he travelled north along the

Mackenzie River, and set up Providence Mission at Rapide.118

In

1868, Bishop Grandin made St. Albert his home and soon

became its bishop (1871-1902).

The Oblates set up mission

stations at Fond du Lac on

Lake Athabaska (Our Lady of

Seven Sorrows), Fort Vermilion (St. Henry) and Fort Dunvegan (St.

Charles) on the Peace River, Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake (St.

Joseph), and Fort Simpson on the Peace River (Sacred Heart of Jesus).

From there, missionary activity continued down the Mackenzie River,

up the Peel River, down the Yukon River to the Arctic Sea, and over

the range of the vast Canadian North.119

In this enterprise, the Vicar

Apostolic of Athabaska-Mackenzie – Bishop Henri Faraud – played a

centrol role for forty years. He had arrived at Saint-Boniface in

November 1846, and spent six months learning the language and

customs of the Ojibwa people. He was ordained to the priesthood the

following May and spent a year with missionaries Taché and Laflèche

at Île-à-la-Crosse before leaving for Fort Chipewyan in 1849. A

talented linguist, he compiled a study of the Chipewyan language

which he sent to Taché for use by other missionaries.120

He was there

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by himself for three years before he received Father Henri Grollier as an assistant in 1852.121

Grollier, a seasoned traveller, founded missions at Fond du Lac (1853), Fort Simpson (1858), Fort

Providence (1858–59), Fort Rae (St. Michael’s, 1859), and Fort Norman (St. Thérèse, 1859). In 1859,

Bishop Taché sent Father Grollier down the Mackenzie River to establish the new mission of Good

Hope.122

The next year, Father Grollier visited Fort McPherson on the Peel River, where he met

Loucheux Indians for the first time and also visited the Inuit.123

He died at the age of thirty-eight.124

In 1856, Father Faraud traveled to Fort Resolution on the shores of Great Slave Lake where he

established St. Joseph Mission.125

One of the most successful missions in the district, it served as a base

from which grew the missions at Fort Simpson, Fort Rae, Fort Liard, and Hay River.126

Father Faraud,

ordained Bishop in France in November, 1862, was appointed the first apostolic vicar of the new

vicariate of Athabaska-Mackenzie. He first established his headquarters at Providence on the upper

Mackenzie River but moved his Episcopal residence four years later to Our Lady of Victories mission at

Lac La Biche.127

He also received permission to appoint Isidore Clut as his auxiliary, and put him in

charge of the more northerly portion of the vicariate.128

Bishop Clut set up St. Henri Mission at Fort

Vermillion on the Peace River (1868). He also attended the First Vatican Council (1869-70).129

Father Albert Lacombe started his missionary work in the Pembina area

from 1849-1851. When he offered his services to Bishop Taché upon

their meeting in Montreal, he was quickly appointed to the Lac Ste Anne

mission near Edmonton. He served the white and Métis populations of

Edmonton and Jasper House, as well as the Métis communities at Lac Ste

Anne, St. Albert, and Saint-Paul-des-Cris on the Saskatchewan River. His

first companion at Lac Ste Anne was Father Renée Rémas, who, in 1853,

founded a mission at Lac La Biche, a stopping point on the Hudson’s Bay

Company’s supply routes.130

Father Lacombe also evangelized the

aboriginal people of the surrounding area, visiting the Peace River region

and the Lesser Slave Lake area, developing friendships and trust with the

Cree, Blackfoot and Chipewyan peoples. He joined the Oblates in 1856

and served the Canadian west for half a

century, until his death in 1916.131

Meanwhile, the Oblates who had established themselves in Walla Walla,

Washington and laboured in what is now Oregon and Washington State, had

moved their headquarters to British Columbia in 1858, and set up a new

centre of operations, and the first resident Oblate mission at Esquimalt on

Vancouver Island, under the care of Father Louis D’Herbomez, regional

superior.132

Here, they ministered to the Irish sailors who frequented the port,

and they extended their missionary labours to the native peoples of the

Island, as well as the mainland.133

Father Casimir Chirouse was the first

Oblate missionary to visit the native communities on the island, evangelizing

so successfully on this first trip in May of 1859 that almost four hundred

children were baptized and two thousand adults turned away from gambling,

conjuring and taking lives.134

Another Oblate Father, Charles Pandosy,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cree

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founded the mission of the Immaculate Conception on the eastern shore of Lake Okanagan in 1859.135

Oblate Fathers Léon Fouquet and Pierre Paul Durieu (later to become the first bishop of New

Westminster, British Columbia) arrived from France in 1859 to serve as missionaries to the native

peoples of Vancouver Island.136

By 1862, gold fever had struck in British Columbia, and eight to ten thousand strangers made their way

there in the hopes of making their fortunes. This invasion not only had a bad influence on the natives

because of the unprincipled manner of life among the gold-seekers, but also because of the smallpox

which the newcomers carried with them. The natives, unaccustomed to taking hygienic precautions,

were unable to control the spread of the disease among themselves. As a result, Fathers Pandosy,

Fouquet, Chirouse, and Durieu had also to quickly take up the task of vaccinating and operating on

several thousand natives in their care.137

Father Jean-Marie Le Jacq was appointed superior of the new

St. Joseph’s Mission at Williams Lake (1868), which included the interior of British Columbia from the

52nd

to the 56th

parallels. Father James McGuckin became superior of this mission in 1872. The

following year, this mission territory was divided in two and the new mission of Our Lady of Good

Hope created at Stuart Lake. Another mission (St. Michael’s, on an island off the northern tip of

Vancouver Island) was closed in 1874 because the Oblates were not able to interest the local native

peoples in Christianity. By 1875, the Oblates had left Vancouver Island but continued to serve the

British Columbia mainland.138

On the other hand, the Jesuit Fathers, stationed in what is now

Washington State, took up missionary work with the Kootenay Amerindians in the southeastern corner

of the province of British Columbia, with great success.139

Through the 1860s, as the number of Oblate priests decreased, the Vancouver Island Diocese obtained

secular priests from the Catholic University of Louvain’s American College of the Immaculate

Conception and elsewhere. This college’s aim was to educate European men to serve as missionary

priests in North America and to offer American seminarians the philosophical and theological riches

available at Europe’s oldest Catholic university.140

Fathers August Brabant, John Nicholas Lemmens,

and Joseph Nicolaye were some of the diocesan priests who helped build the Vancouver Island

Diocese.141

A number of missions were set up to counter the Protestant influence in the area: St. Jean Pierre Mission

at Fort St. John, Our Lady of the Snows Mission at Portage des Montagnes Rocheuses (on the Peace

River, near Hudson’s Hope, British Columbia), and St. Charles Mission at Fort Dunvegan, Peace River,

Alberta.142

Satellite missions were also established in the region: Saint-Nom-de-Marie at Fort Anderson,

Lapierre House at St. Barnabé, Ste-Thérèse at Fort Norman and St. Jean at Fort Yukon. East of the

Peace River, the Oblates also had St. Bernard Mission at Lesser Slave Lake (actually part of the St.

Albert Diocese), and, much later, in 1900 at Sturgeon Lake (St. François-Xavier Mission.143

By 1898,

the Vicariate of Athabaska-Mackenzie had 18 missions, staffed by sixty-two Oblates, and several

schools run by the Sisters of Providence and the Grey Nuns. By 1901, the Vicariate was split in two: the

Vicariate Apostolic of Athabaska and the Vicariate Apostolic of Mackenzie.144

Owing to the intense severity of the climate, the mission at St. Peter’s, on the northern shore of Lake

Caribou, six hundred miles east of Île-à-la-Crosse, was considered by Bishop Taché to be the most

difficult of all the missions in the North.145

It was established in 1861 by Father Végreville who had

begun his missionary work at Île-à-la-Crosse in 1852. His expertise as a linguist in the Cree and other


Page 18 of 24






languages of the native peoples in the area helped him evangelize effectively. He served as a missionary

for more than fifty years.146

Today, we owe a debt of gratitude to all the missionaries who, with courage, determination and deep

faith, proclaimed the Gospel across the North American continent in the earliest centuries of our nation’s

development. In their generous work for the liberation and autonomy of those they served, their

advocacy on behalf of First Nations peoples, and the integrity, heroism and genuine love and affection

with which they carried out their missionary labour, they brought to fulfillment their duty to proclaim

and establish the Kingdom of God throughout the world. Walking on the same path Christ walked – a

path of poverty and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice to the death, from which death He came

forth a victor by His resurrection – the Apostles and their successors – missionaries and indeed, all

Christians – follow in hope, obeying Christ’s command, and depending upon the grace and love of the

Holy Spirit to lead others to the faith, freedom and peace of Christ (Ad Gentes 5).

Integrated Research Questions and Activities:

1. (Religion/Language Arts) Choose one of the missionaries listed in the historical overview, and

research that individual’s life and work in greater detail. Consider drawing a Facebook page for

that individual. Present your findings in class.

2. (Religion/Language Arts) How did the earliest missionary efforts differ from century to century?

3. (Religion/Language Arts) Research one of the religious orders, congregations or societies that

provided missionaries for the Canadian missions. Present your findings in writing or in an oral

class presentation. This activity may be carried out individually or in small groups. Discussion

Question: If you were to choose a vocation as a member of a religious order or congregation,

which of those mentioned in the combined class research would you join? Explain your choice.

4. (Geography) How might the climate and geographical conditions in each region have influenced

the efforts of the early missionaries?

5. (Geography/Computers) Referring to the historical overview document, make a list of the

missions mentioned. Identify on a map of Canada where these first missions were located. The

Internet will assist you in finding their exact locations.

6. (Religion/Social Studies) Research your own family history. In which country/countries or

nationalities does your family have its roots? Is there a history of Christian faith in your family?

If so, trace the history of that faith back to the work of missionaries, if you can.

Page 19 of 24






7. (Religion/Social Studies) Research the age of arrival in Canada of the various missionaries

mentioned in the history. Write a diary page about the thoughts such a missionary might have

had as he or she made the voyage to the New World. What might such a missionary say to you

and your classmates today?

8. (Religion/Social Studies) What differences in culture did the missionaries encounter when they

met the various First Nations people of the land which would become Canada? What effect on

First Nations Peoples’ cultures did the first missionaries have?

9. (Religion/Social Studies)What strategies did many of the missionaries develop to get to know

and be accepted by the First Nations Peoples? How did the missionaries show respect for the

First Nations Peoples?

10. (Religion) Research the history of the meaning of the Sacrament of Baptism to help you

understand one of the motives for the missionary effort. Present your work in class.

11. (Religion) Research the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation to

discover why Catholic and Protestant missionaries did not often work together in the New

World. What signs of cooperation among Christian denominations do you see today?

12. (Religion)What strategies would you use to teach the Good News to someone not of your

culture? How would you determine which aspects of that person’s culture might need to be

challenged by the Gospel and which could easily be preserved in a new Christian context?

13. (Language Arts) Write an essay on the influence of Catholic missionaries from the viewpoint of

either the missionary or of a First Nations person.

14. (History) Draw a time line of the missionary activities from 1500-1900.

(Art) Paint or draw an illustration of the missionaries’ adventures and their

15. interactions with the First Nations Peoples.

16. (Computers/Business) Using your computers, design a PowerPoint or slide presentation focusing

on one aspect of early Canadian missionary work.

Notes

1 Cornelius J. Jaenen, The Role of the Church in New France, The Frontenac Library, ed. Geoffrey Milburn

(Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1976), viii. Hereafter, this book is referred to as Jaenen, The Role (Frontenac). 2 Ibid., 12-13.

3 Ibid., 3.

4 Ibid., 4-5.

5 Ibid., vi-vii.

6 Ibid., 3.

Page 20 of 24






7 John C. MacMillan. The Early History of the Catholic Church in Prince Edward Island (Quebec: Evènement

Printing, 1905), 2. 8 Jaenen, The Role (Frontenac), 3. Samuel de Champlain continued to support this as a worthy cause in the next

century. 9 Ibid., 4.

10 Marcel Trudel, “Donnacona” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,

http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=34299. 11

Jaenen, The Role (Frontenac), 13. 12

Ibid. 13

Ibid. 14

Ibid., 14. 15

Ibid., 23. See also Terence J. Fay, A History of Canadian Catholics. Montreal and Kingston: McGill- Queen’s

University Press, 2002, 5. 16

Jaenen, The Role (Frontenac), 13-14. 17

Ibid., 23. 18

Ibid., 15. 19

Ibid., 4, 15. 20

Ibid., 23. Fay, 5-6. 21


Ibid., 15. 23

Dean Harris, Pioneers of the Cross (Toronto: McClelland & Goodchild, 1912, 28. 24

Fay, 6. 25

Ibid. 26

Harris, 33. 27

Cornelius J. Jaenen, The Role of the Church in New France, Canadian Historical Association Historical Booklet

No. 40, (Ottawa: The Canadian Historical Association, 1985), 9. 28


Ibid., 16. 30

Ibid., 17. 31

Fay, 7. 32

Harris, 31. 33

Ibid., 33. 34

Ibid., 40. 35

Fay, 7. 36


Mark A. Noll. A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.

Eerdmans, 1992) 19. 38

Fay. 7. See also Bernard De Vaulx, History of the Missions, translated by Reginald F. Trevett (New York:

Hawthorn Books, 1961), 87. 39

“History,” Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada website: http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com

/AboutThisPlace/History. 40

Hans Rollmann, “A Brief History of Newfoundland Catholicism and the Archdiocese of St. John’s: From Lord

Baltimore to Vatican II,” http://www.mun.ca/rels/rc/texts/rchistory.htm, 1. See also Liza Piper, “The Roman Catholic

Church,” Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage website (2000): http://www.heritage.nf.ca /society/catholic.html. 41

MacMillan, 1-2. 42

Ibid., 3-5. 43

Ibid., 9-10. 44

De Vaulx, 88. 45


De Vaulx, 88. 47

Jaenen, The Role (Frontenac), 5, 7, 25. 48

Ibid., 25-26. 49

De Vaulx, 88.

http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=34299

http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/

http://www.mun.ca/rels/rc/texts/rchistory.htm

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/

Page 21 of 24






50


Stephen Neill, Christian Missions (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1965), 201. See also De Vaulx, 90. 52


De Vaulx, 90. 54


Ibid., 10. 56

Ibid., 10-11. 57

Ibid., 11-12, 110. 58

Ibid., 12. 59

Fay, 17. 60


Ibid., 27. See also Fay, 23-24, and De Vaulx, 89. The priests objected to the use of alcohol by the fur-traders as an

item for barter with the Indians because its misuse had devastating effects on families and marriages, but their efforts failed

since New France’s Governor Frontenac believed that if the First Nations Peoples did not get alcohol from the fur traders in

Quebec, they would go elsewhere to trade. 62


Ibid. 64

Fay, 22-23. 65


Fay, 22. 67

Ibid., 23. 68


Fay, 15-16, 19. See also Jaenen, The Role (Frontenac), 9. 70

Fay, 16-17. 71

Ibid., 17. 72

Ibid., 19. 73


Lucien Campeau, “Druillettes, Gabriel,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,

http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=184. 75

George F. G. Stanley, "The First Indian "Reserves" in Canada," in Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française, vol.

4, no. 2 (1950): 185-187. http://www.erudit.org/revue/haf/1950/v4/n2/801634ar.pdf 76

Jaenen, The Role (Frontenac), viii. 77

Yves F. Zoltvany, “Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye, Pierre (also called Boumois)”, in Dictionary of

Canadian Biography Online, http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=1366. 78

Lucien Campeau, Aulneau (de la Touche), Jean-Pierre, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,


Zoltvany, “Gaultier de Varennes).” 80

Joseph Cossette, “Coquart, Claude-Godefroy,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,


John Gilmary Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States (eBook:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=YUw_AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA618&lpg=PA618&dq=Father+Francis+Picquet&source=bl&ot

s=yOKiS19Jez&sig=496XXvg9hbX9oCPKmHi0W7S9gWY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XaC7T-

6hD8vnggexk6TfCg&ved=0CEoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Father%20Francis%20Picquet&f=false), 614-618. See also

Robert Lahaise, “Picquet, François,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-

e.php?&id_nbr=2120. 82

J.-Bruno Harel, “Marthevet, Jean-Claude,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,


Léo-Paul Hébert, “La Bross, Jean-Baptiste de, Jesuit,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,


Jackie Henry, Government Archives Division, “No. 16 The Proclamation of 1763: A model for the establishment of

Treaties,” Library and Archives Canada, http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/015/002/015002-2010-e.html. See also Fay, 29-

31. 85

Fay, 33-34.

http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34218

Page 22 of 24






86

Ibid., 35. 87

Ibid., 48-58. 88

Noll, 72-73. 89

Robert Choquette. The Oblate Assault on Canada’s Northwest (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1995), 29-30.

See also Dominique de Saint-Denis, The Catholic Church in Canada: Historical and Statistical Summary, 6th

edition

(Montréal: Éditions Thau, Couvent des Capucins, 1956), 189. 90

Choquette, 30. 91

Fay, 37. See also A.G. Morice, History of the Catholic Church in Western Canada from Lake Superior to the

Pacific (1659-1895), Vol. 1 (Toronto: Musson Book Company, 1910), 95-112. 92

Fay, 91. 93

Jennifer S. H. Brown, “North West Company,” The Canadian Encyclopedia/The Encyclopedia of Music in

Canada, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/north-west-company. 94

Morice, Vol. 1, 116-117. See also Nive Voisine, “Dumoulin, Sévère,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Online, http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=3888&&PHPSESSID=ychzfqkvzape. 95

Raymond J.A. Huel, Proclaiming the Gospel to the Indians and the Métis (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press,

1996), 12-13. 96

W. L. Morton, “Bellecourt (Bellecours, Belcourt), George-Antoine,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Online, http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=38943. See also Huel, 13-14. See also Morice, Vol. 1, 161. 97

Morice. Vol. 1, 146-7. 98

Choquette, 35-36. 99

Morice, Vol. 1, 165-168. 100

Ibid., 196-199. 101

Choquette, 34. 102

Ibid., 35. See also Jean Usher, “Demers, Modeste,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,

http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=4938. 103

Fay, 94. See also Kay Cronin, Cross in the Wilderness (Vancouver: Mitchell Press, 1960), 3. 104


Fay, 94. See also Choquette, 96-97. 106

Morice. Vol. 1, 293-294. 107

Choquette, 35. 108

Morice, Vol. 1, 176-181. 109

Fay, 91. See also Choquette, 29. 110

Huel, 1. 111

Ibid. 1. See also Choquette, 9-10. 112

Fay, 91-92. See also Choquette, 40. 113

Morice, Vol. 1, 351. 114


Huel. 22. 116


Morice, Vol. 1, 251. 118

Ibid., 313-314. 119

Choquette, 52. 120

Huel, 30. 121


Ibid., 56. 123

Gaston Carrière, “Grollier, Pierre-Henri,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,

http://www.biographi.ca/EN/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=4469. See also Choquette, 144. 124


Huel, 22-23. 126

“The Vicariate Apostolic of Athabaska-Mackenzie,” http://oblatesinthewest.library.ualberta.ca

/eng/order/vicariateAtha.html. 127

Choquette, 74. 128

Ibid., 58-59.

http://www.biographi.ca/EN/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=4469

http://oblatesinthewest.library.ualberta.ca/

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129

Ibid., 68. 130

Fay, 94. 131


Ibid., 46-47. 133

Morice, Vol. 2, 304-305. 134

Ibid., 305. 135

Ibid., 305-306. 136

Ibid., 306. 137

Ibid., 319-320. 138

Choquette, 97-98. See also Morice, Vol. 2, 330-331. 139

Morice, Vol. 2, 306-307. 140

“Heritage of American College in Leuven, Belgium Preserved by USCCB and K.U. Leuven,” (August 22, 2011), http://www.usccb.org/news/2011/11-163.cfm.

141 Morice, Vol. 2, 352-354.

142 Huel, 48.

143 “The Vicariate Apostolic of Athabaska-Mackenzie,” http://oblatesinthewest.library.ualberta.ca

/eng/order/vicariateAtha.html. 144

Ibid. 145

Morice, Vol. 2, 351. See also Morice, Vol. 1, 308. 146

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