United States or Christmas Island ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Reverend Father Garnier de Chapouin, provincial of the province of St. Denis, appointed four monks as the founders of the future mission. Their names were Father Denis Jamet, Jean d'Olbeau, Joseph Le Caron, and a brother named Pacifique du Plessis, who received orders to accompany them. These four monks were all remarkable for their virtue and apostolic zeal.
In the interval he had built a residence upon the ground donated by the merchants, and had the satisfaction of leaving one hundred and forty neophytes as the result of the labours of the mission. Father d'Olbeau had his residence at Quebec. On his return to Canada Father Huet was accompanied by Father Guillaume Poullain, three friars and two labourers. Champlain did not return this year.
When the friars reached Quebec they arranged a division of labour in this manner: Jamay and Du Plessis were to remain at Quebec; D'Olbeau was to return to Tadoussac and essay the thorny task of converting the tribes round that fishing and trading station; while to Le Caron was assigned a more distant field, but one that promised a rich harvest.
The Récollets had abandoned the Huron mission as their numbers were diminishing every year, and they were too poor to continue their ministrations without assistance. They still held in charge the missions at Quebec and at Tadousac. Father d'Olbeau, who had been present at the opening of the Récollet convent at Quebec, saw its doors closed.
When we take into consideration these circumstances, and the meagreness of the resources of the order, and the difficulties they had in acquiring the language, we can form a faint idea of the hardness of their lot, and it was not without just cause that they decided to send Father d'Olbeau to France with Champlain, in order that the true state of affairs might be urged still further before the king.
They built near the French post at Quebec a little chapel which was placed in charge of Father Jamay and Brother Du Plessis, while Jean d'Olbeau went to live among the Montagnais and Joseph Le Caron among the Hurons of the West. During the summer of 1615 Champlain fulfilled his pledge to accompany the allied tribes on an expedition into the country of the Iroquois.
After having studied the situation they resolved that Father d'Olbeau should visit France, see the king in person, and place before him the settlers' condition and their own. During his absence Father Huet undertook the charge of the mission at Tadousac, and Brother Pacifique du Plessis was appointed to teach catechism to the Indians of Three Rivers.
For the celebration of this religious festival, the Récollets had built some huts, which were used as stations, and French and Indians proceeded from one of those improvised chapels to the other, singing the psalms and hymns of the church. In the year 1618, the Récollets in New France were only three in number: Fathers Le Caron and d'Olbeau, and Friar Modeste Guines.
After two months of fatigue, Father d'Olbeau was compelled to return to Quebec, as he was suffering from sore eyes, and was unable to unclose his eyelids for several weeks. The two fathers arrived at Quebec on July 11th, 1616, and Father Jamet was pleased to learn the result of the missions of his confrères.
A chapel had been built, in what is now the Lower Town, close to the habitation, and here Father Jamay ministered to the spiritual needs of the colonists and laboured among the Indians camped in the vicinity of the trading-post. Father d'Olbeau had been busy among the Montagnais, a wandering Algonquin tribe between Tadoussac and Seven Islands, his reward being chiefly suffering.
Word Of The Day