proudly presents:

3 or maybe 4 Saints

from New France (Old Canada)

in the 1600 and 1700sWritten by: Fergus JM Ducharme

Assisted by: She Who Must be Obeyed # 1 and # 2

When New France was founded in the early 1600s, one of the main objectives,

besides making the settlement venture pay dividends to the French King was to

convert the aboriginal population to Christianity.

It was in fact Samuel de Champlain who returned to New France on 2nd June 1615

with four Recollects (The Recollects were a French reform branch of the Order of

Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans) in order to further religious life in

the new colony. The Roman Catholic Church was eventually given en

seigneurie large and valuable tracts of land estimated at nearly 30% of all the lands

granted by the French Crown in New France.

The Recollects were important as early missionaries to the French colonies in

Canada, although they were later displaced there by the Jesuits.

As noted above, the first Recollect missionaries sailed with Samuel de Champlain,

embarking from Rouen and arriving at Quebec City on 2 June 1615. The Recollect

friars are said to have brewed the first beer in New France in 1620.

Joseph Le Caron, O.M.R., was one of the four pioneer missionaries of Canada,

together with Father Denis Jamet, Father Jean Dolbeau, and Brother Pacifique du

Plessis, all Recollect friars, Le Caron was also the first missionary to the Hurons.

Born around 1586, Le Caron took Holy Orders and served as chaplain and tutor to

the Duke of Orléans, the future King Henry IV of France, and his son the Dauphin

(later Louis XIII of France). When the King died, Le Caron renounced any

ecclesiastical advancement and joined the Recollects, a reform branch of the Order

of Friars Minor who followed a strict life of poverty, with whom he made his

profession in 1611.

In 1615 Samuel de Champlain brought four Recollect friars to New France,

including Father Le Caron, as missionaries to the Indians. On April 24, 1615, they

sailed from Honfleur aboard the St. Étienne.

Le Caron reached Canada on May 25 and immediately accompanied some fur-

traders to Sault St. Louis. His intention was to meet the Huron traders there and go

with them to their own country. After a short time he travelled to Quebec to provide

himself with a portable altar kit. On June 24, 1615 he assisted Father Denis Jamet

in saying the first Mass in Quebec, on the Île de Montréal.

Le Caron returned to the Sault, and went into the land of the Hurons, being the

first to visit their settlements and preach the Gospel, preceding even Champlain.

His party made the 1,100-km voyage following the Ottawa River as far as the

Mattawa, the Mattawa as far as Lake Nipissing, and then the French River to

Georgian Bay. He thus became the first European to see Lake Huron, which he

reached by the end of July, a few days before Champlain also arrived.

On August 12, 1615 he celebrated the first Mass in Huron country, in the

presence of Champlain. Le Caron stayed with the Hurons about a year (1615–

16), and was again among them in 1623.

In 1623, he was accompanied by Father Viel who would contribute significantly to

Le Caron's dictionary.

In 1616, Le Caron returned to France with Champlain, to look after the spiritual

and material interests of the colony. The following spring saw him in Canada

again, as Provincial Commissary. During this time he celebrated the wedding of

Louis Hébert’s eldest daughter Anne to Étienne Jonquet, the first recorded

Christian marriage in Canada.

During the winters of 1618 and 1622 he evangelized the Montagnais of Tadousac.

Champlain and Le Caron’s route along the French River

Among the first missionaries sent by France to its colony, Viel traveled

to Huron territory, arriving there with fellow Recollect Father Joseph Le

Caron in 1623. He was studying the language and collecting material to

add to Le Caron’s dictionary.

After almost two years, in May 1625 Viel decided to return to Quebec.

After a long period of travel, he was murdered by the three Indian

companions in his canoe. A young man called Ahuntsic, who was

following in another canoe, witnessed the crime, and suffered the same

fate. The event took place near present day Sault-au-Récollet and was

well witnessed and recorded. The friar's body was recovered from the

water a few days later and buried at Quebec City.

Le Caron with the help of Viel compiled the first dictionary of the Huron language, and also

dictionaries of the Algonkin and Montagnais languages. None of them exist today.

In June 1624, he sent to France a study he had written on the Indians, their customs and the

difficulties involved in their conversion. Large extracts of the document were preserved by Le

Clercq.

The Recollects were expelled by the British in 1629. After the permanent conquest by the British

the Recollects were forbidden from accepting new ‘recruits’ starting in 1759. The last Canadian

Recollect, Louis Demers died in Montreal in 1813.

Replica of Champlain’s Ship: Don de Dieu, which transported him

back and forth to France over the years he was in Canada

The Ursulines and Hospitalières arrive at Québec, 1639

In 1625, the Ursulines landed in New France to assist the Récollets and soon took a leadership

role both in the missions and among the clergy. This situation continued until the arrival of the

first bishop p in 1659 and even beyond this date.

In 1632, after Québec had been captured by the British, the Jesuits came back to run the

Récollect missions at Champlain ( now Trois-Rivières) for the Abenaki, at Tadoussac for the

Algonquins, on Georgian Bay for the Hurons and at Île Royale, in Acadia, for the Mi’kmaq.

Beginning in 1632, the Jesuits wrote up annual accounts of their missions’ progress. Known as

The Relations, these accounts were sent to France to be published for propaganda purposes.

Their aim was not so much to recruit large numbers of settlers, but rather to attract other

missionary congregations. The Jesuits sought the aid of nuns who could take on responsibility for

the conversion and education of girls. The Ursuline nuns of Tours and Bordeaux including Marie

de l’Incarnation, most notably were faithful readers of the Relations. They answered the Jesuits’

call and offered their services.

It took three long years of negotiating with the authorities, but the nuns eventually won

permission to leave for Canada, a country described by Jacques Cartier as “the land God gave

to Cain.”

In 1639, after a three month voyage the Ursulines and the Hospitalières finally landed.

The Ursulines dedicated themselves to converting young Amerindian girls and according to the

king’s orders to “civilize” them.

The Hospitalières were to care for the sick, which included Aboriginal peoples suffering from

epidemics of European diseases, as well as French soldiers and sailors, who very often arrived at

Québec in a sorry state of health.

At first, the Ursulines were lodged in an abandoned fur warehouse on the Québec wharf, loaned

to them by merchants in the Compagnie des Cents-Associés (Company of One Hundred

Associates). The nuns’ mission thus began in these cramped, unsanitary and poorly heated

quarters; they had to wait until 1642 for the construction of their convent in the Upper Town of

Quebec to be completed.

Their first boarders were Algonquin and Innu girls entrusted to them by the other missionaries; a

little later, the nuns took in the daughters of settlers. In the 1650s, they started to admit small

groups of Huron girls, as well as a few Iroquois, particularly the daughters of converted chiefs,

and these latter pupils were described by the sisters as their “heart’s delights.” French and

Aboriginal boarders stayed in the same dormitory, ate in the same refectory and played in the

same yard. However, when it came to schooling, the Aboriginal girls were taught in separate

classrooms, to make it easier to convert them.

Tomb of St Marie de L’incarnation at the Ursuline

Convent in Quebec City

The First Ursuline’s of Quebec Residence in 1689 occupying the

location of the current Notre Dames des Victories Church in

Lower Town, Quebec.

By the end of the 17th century, the three government towns of New France: Québec,

Trois-Rivières and Montréal, all had a good number of grade schools both for girls

and for boys.

Québec City had the Ursulines’ Convent, the Ouvroir de la Providence run by the

Notre-Dame Congregation, the Jesuits’ College, the Grand Séminaire and the Petit

Séminaire.

In Trois-Rivières there was the hospital-school operated by the Ursulines; and

Montréal was served by the Sulpicians’ grade schools and colleges for boys and

Marguerite de Bourgeoys’ schools for girls, as well as the hospitals and hospices

managed at one time or another by Jeanne Mance, Marguerite d’Youville, the

Charron brothers and the Hospitalières of Dieppe and of La Flèche.

The Sulpicians recruited their members exclusively among the priests at their Saint-Sulpice

seminary, in France.

In 1657, under the direction of their grand vicar, Abbé Gabriel Thubières de Levy de Queylus, the

order founded the seminary in Montréal. Acquiring the seigneury of the island of Montréal in 1664,

they fulfilled many roles: they were parish priests in the town and its surroundings, Superiors for

nuns’ congregations in Montréal, teachers, missionaries and explorers.

When the time came for a bishop to be named for the colony, the Sulpician Abbé Queylus was

poised to assume this title, while the Jesuits lobbied in support of their candidate, Monseigneur de

Laval. This led to major conflict between the two orders.

Abbé Queylus had already assumed the role of grand vicar to the archbishop of Rouen,

Monseigneur François de Harlay and he was certain that the position belonged to him.

Since most of the vessels sailing for the colony left from the port of Rouen at the time, the

archbishop claimed to have exclusive rights to New France.

The Jesuits, however, had been in charge of the Canadian Church since 1632 and had a strong

candidate in Monseigneur de Laval, who had studied at the College La Flèche, a Jesuit institution.

In the end, the Jesuits won their case and Monseigneur de Laval was appointed to head the

Church in Canada.

Monseigneur Francois de Laval arriving in Quebec after his

appointment – to note: he is also a future Saint…

Marguerite Bourgeoys arrived at Montréal along with some 200 men and women who

were part of the “great recruitment” of 1653.

This was an initiative designed to help repopulate the town, which had been steadily

losing its inhabitants as a result of Iroquois attacks. The new colonists represented all

kinds of professions and rekindled hope in the heart of Montréal’s founder, Sieur de

Maisonneuve.

Marguerite Bourgeoys was obliged to put off establishing a school until 1658, since there

were not enough children in the town. In the meantime, she busied herself with assisting

Jeanne Mance at her hospital and visiting families in the settlement.

Marguerite Bourgeoys was a woman of action and travelled back to France several times

to recruit new teachers for the Notre-Dame Congregation. Over the years, she founded

several grade schools for girls in Montréal, Québec, Trois-Rivières and Louisbourg, as

well as on Île d’Orléans.

Since the congregation’s rules forbade keeping pupils over the age of 14 at their

convents, older girls could not attend grade school.

Marguerite Bourgeoys

Marguerite Bourgeoys meets Jeanne Mance

The main entrance of Hotel Dieu Hospital in Montreal founded by Jeanne Mance

Hotel Dieu Hospital, Montreal

As a young child, Marguerite d’Youville grew up in one of the colony’s most eminent families,

being related to the Gathiers de Varennes on her mother’s side.

However, her father was heavily in debt when he died, leaving his family in stricken

circumstances. In 1722, she married François-Madeleine d’Youville, who, after squandering both

his fortune and hers on gambling and alcohol, died eight years later.

Left with only a house to her name, Marguerite d’Youville withdrew from the world and devoted

her energy to prayer and charitable work.

She gathered around her women like herself who were poor, but who shared her ideals.

This was the nucleus of the Congrégation des Soeurs de la Charité de l’Hôpital général de

Montréal, which she eventually founded in 1747.

In the meantime, the 1740s were very difficult years for Marguerite d’Youville. The Sulpicians,

who were the spiritual advisors of Montréal, wanted Madame d’Youville and her followers to

replace the Charron brothers and take over the direction of the Hôpital Général, which was

experiencing serious problems. It was not an easy undertaking, especially since certain

prejudices died hard in the town.

The inhabitant, who nicknamed the women the “Grey Nuns,” believed that Marguerite d’Youville

would continue her husband’s disreputable ways, since he had been known as a brutal,

dishonest merchant, a gambler and inveterate drinker.

Francois-Madelaine

d’Youville

Marguerite Dufrost

de la Jemmerais

The widowed Marguerite

d’Youville

She helped society’s rejects and problems never seemed to be

far from her, in 1765 the ‘hospital’ was burned to the ground

and she effectively had to start over…

However, as the population became aware of the need for the apostolic work she was doing and

her zeal in helping the poor, the situation improved. The Soeurs de la Charité were even able to

open a wing for “fallen women,” as they were called at the time, and thus modified the hospital’s

vocation, since it had been reserved for men until then.

When Marguerite d’Youville took control of the hospital in 1747, the establishment was bankrupt

and burdened with a debt of over 40,000 livres.

She worked tirelessly to restore the hospital’s viability through every imaginable means: weaving,

producing candles and communion wafers, curing tobacco, baking and selling bread, and

marketing produce from the sisters’ farm.

Marguerite d’Youville accepted society’s rejects;those who would be turned away from other

hospitals: abandoned children, the mentally disturbed, orphans, disabled soldiers, the elderly and

lepers.

Anyone who was able to help was put to work, whether it was as tailors, cobblers or bakers.

She even hired British soldiers as farm workers or orderlies, and these men taught the sisters

English. Her resourcefulness enabled her social mission to survive one of the worst periods in the

history of New France, marked by epidemics, bad harvests, war and, as of 1763, the

perturbations accompanying the advent of British rule.

Marguerite was Beatified in

1959, by Saint John XXIII and

Canonized in 1990, by Pope

John Paul II.

St John XXIII called her “The

Mother of Universal Charity“

when he Beatified her.

Her Feast Day is: October 16th

and she is considered the

Patron Saint of: widows &

difficult marriages.

Statue of Marie Bruyere (founder of the Grey

Nuns of Ottawa) with St. Marguerite d’Youville,

the children and the sick, placed in the

Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa.

St Marguerite d’Youville’s tomb at the Grey

Nuns Motherhouse in Varrennes, Quebec in

suburban Montreal where she was born.

St Marguerite died in Montreal at age 71 at the

Montreal General Hospital

Let’s summarize:

In our narrative today, we have met 3 Canadian

Saints of the Catholic Church and one Saintly

person who should, in our opinion, be considered

for Sainthood.

They are:

St Marguerite Bourgeoys

She was Beatified on November 12th 1950 by Pope Pius XII

She was Canonized on October 31st, 1982, by Pope John

Paul II

Her major shrine is Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel in

Montreal

Her feast day is: January 12th

She is the Patron Saint: against poverty; the loss of parents &;

people rejected by religious orders.

Click the link to read: “The Rest of the Story”

Jeanne Mance

Although not now a Saint of the Church, Jeanne Mance

should be!

Her works selflessness certainly merit at least consideration

for such a holy honour.

For the complete story on Jeanne Mance follow this link to

her complete biography.

Click the link to read: “The Rest of the Story”.

Saint Marguerite d’Youville

Click the link to read: “The Rest of the Story”

Bishop Francois de Laval

He was beatified June 22nd, 1980 by Pope John Paul II

He was Canonized April 2nd, 2014 by Pope Francis

His Shrine is: The Cathedral of Notre Dame of Quebec.

His Feast Day is: May 6th

Saint Francois de Laval

Click the link to read: “The Rest of the Story”

We want to thank the following for their contributions to this article:

Other materials and some photos provided by: www.wikipedia.org

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