Jamet, Provincial Superior of the Order in the Province of Saint-Denis in France, in 1615 was chosen by his superiors as Provincial Commissary and chief of the first band of Recollect friars, who were also the first missionaries of Canada. He sailed from Honfleur on the St. Étienne on April 24, 1615, with three other Recollects, Father Joseph Le Caron, Father Jean Dolbeau and laybrother Brother Pacifique Duplessis. They arrived at Tadoussac on May 25 and Jamet went immediately with Samuel de Champlain to meet the Indians at Sault St. Louis. On June 24, 1615, at Rivière des Prairies, he celebrated the first Mass said in Quebec. He sent back to France a relation dated July 15, 1615 (addressed to Cardinal François de Joyeuse). This relation included some description of the topography, climate, inhabitants, customs and religion of New France, as well as Jamet's views on the conditions necessary for the evangelization of the country.
On July 20, 1616, Jamet left for France with Champlain and Father Le Caron to urge before the king and the Associates of Rouen the material and spiritual interests of the colony. During his four years in France, while still working on behalf of the Canadian missions, he also served as superior of the convents of Saint-Denis (1617), Châlons (1618), and Sézanne, which he founded in 1619.
Again elected commissary provincial, he returned to Canada with Champlain and his wife, sailing on April 5, 1620, on the Sallemande. On reaching Quebec he exhorted the colonists to obey the viceroy and his lieutenant, Champlain. He completed the first regular convent of the Recollects at Quebec, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, with the financial assistance of Charles de Boves, vicar general of Pontoise, Henry II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, and Sieur Louis Houel. He dedicated the convent on May 25, 1621. Jamet returned to France in the spring of 1622. He died at the friary of Montargis, in Orléanais, on February 26, 1625.
Bibliography
(in French) Samuel de Champlain, Les Œuvres de Champlain, ed. by Charles-Honoré Laverdière (6 vols., Quebec, 1870)
(in French)Gabriel Sagard, Histoire du Canada, ed. Tross (4 vols., Paris, 1866)
(in French)Histoire chronol. de la province de St-Denis (Bibliothèque nationale, Paris)
External links
"Denis Jamet" by Frédéric Gingras at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
"Ontario’s Pioneer Priest Fr. Joseph Le Caron by John J. O’Gorman, S.C.D., The Catholic World, v. CII, March 1916. Contains additional information on the establishment of the mission
Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec City, and New France, on 3 July 1608. An important figure in Canadian history, Champlain created the first accurate coastal map during his explorations and founded various colonial settlements.
Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral or in full Mary, Queen of the World and St. James the Great Cathedral is a minor basilica in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Montreal. It is the third largest church in Quebec after Saint Joseph's Oratory and the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré east of Quebec City. The building is 101 m (333 ft) in length, 46 m (150 ft) in width, and a maximum height of 77 m (252 ft) at the cupola, the diameter of which is 23 m (75 ft).
Jean de Brébeuf, SJ was a French Jesuit missionary who travelled to New France (Canada) in 1625. There he worked primarily with the Huron for the rest of his life, except for a few years in France from 1629 to 1633. He learned their language and culture, writing extensively about each to aid other missionaries.
Étienne Brûlé was the first European explorer to journey beyond the St. Lawrence River into what is now known as Canada. He spent much of his early adult life among the Hurons, and mastered their language and learned their culture. Brûlé became an interpreter and guide for Samuel de Champlain, who later sent Brûlé on a number of exploratory missions, among which he is thought to have preceded Champlain to the Great Lakes, reuniting with him upon Champlain's first arrival at Lake Huron. Among his many travels were explorations of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, as well as the Humber and Ottawa Rivers. Champlain agreed to send Brûlé, at his own request, as an interpreter to live among the Onontchataron, an Algonquin people, in 1610. In 1629, during the Anglo-French War, he escaped after being captured by the Seneca tribe. Brûlé was killed by the Bear tribe of the Huron people, who believed he had betrayed them to the Seneca.
Events from the 1610s in Canada.
Gabriel Sagard, O.M.R., was a French lay brother and Recollect friar, belonging to a reform branch of the Order of Friars Minor known for their strict poverty. He was among the first Christian missionaries to New France, and is notable for his writings on the colony and on the Hurons.
The Recollects were a French reform branch of the Friars Minor, a Franciscan order. Denoted by their gray habits and pointed hoods, the Recollects took vows of poverty and devoted their lives to prayer, penance, and spiritual reflection. Today, they are best known for their presence as missionaries in various parts of the world, most notably in early Canada.
The history of Quebec City extends back thousands of years, with its first inhabitants being the First Nations peoples of the region. The arrival of French explorers in the 16th century eventually led to the establishment of Quebec City, in present-day Quebec, Canada. The city is one of the oldest European settlements in North America, with the establishment of a permanent trading post in 1608.
Charles Lallemant, SJ, was a French Jesuit missionary. He was born in Paris in 1587 and later became the first superior of the Jesuit Missions amongst the Huron in Canada. His letter to his brother, dated August 1, 1626, inaugurated the series Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France about the missionary work in the North American colonies of New France.
Chrestien Le Clercq, O.M.R., was a Recollect Franciscan friar and missionary to the Mi'kmaq on the Gaspé peninsula of Canada in the mid-17th century. He was a chronicler of New France, who wrote two early histories, and translator of a Native American language of that region, adapting an apparently indigenous mnemonic glyph system into a writing system known as Míkmaq hieroglyphic writing.
Carhagouha was a settlement of the Huron/Wendat people. The place near where it is thought to have existed, near present-day Lafontaine, Ontario, Canada, is commemorated with a historical marker. Carhagouha was the site of the first Catholic Mass celebrated in what is now Ontario, on August 12, 1615, by Fr. Joseph Le Caron in the presence of French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, and the Wendat.
Joseph Le Caron, O.M.R., was one of the four pioneer missionaries of Canada, and was the first missionary to the Hurons.
Champlain is a municipality in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is located in Les Chenaux Regional County Municipality and the administrative region the Mauricie, on the north shore of St. Lawrence River. Champlain is also part of the metropolitan area of Trois-Rivières.
Paul Le Jeune (1591–1664) was a French Jesuit missionary in New France. He served as the Superior of the Jesuits in the French colony of Canada from 1632 to 1639. During his tenure, he began a mission at Trois-Rivières, founded the community at Sillery, and saw the establishment of the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.
Father Nicolas Viel, O.M.R., was a French Recollect missionary to the Hurons from 1623 to 1625.
Jean Dolbeau, O.M.R., was a Recollect friar, one of the four Recollects who were the first Catholic missionaries to northern New France, present day Canada. Dolbeau-Mistassini in Quebec is named for him.
Francis Nugent was an Irish priest of the Franciscan Capuchin Order. He was the founder of the Irish and the Rhenish Provinces of the Order.
Joseph Denis was a Canadian Récollet priest.
Charles de Condren, Cong. Orat., a Doctor of the Sorbonne, was a French mystic of the 17th century, and is considered a leading member of the French School of Spirituality.
The Assumption Cathedral also called Paroisse Immaculée-Conception of Trois-Rivières, is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trois-Rivieres in Quebec, Canada, since the nineteenth century.
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