Etienne de Carheil

Carheil, ETIENNE DE, French missionary among the Indians of Canada, b. at Carentoir, France, November, 1633; d. at Quebec, July 27, 1726. He entered the Society of Jesus at Paris, August 30, 1652; studied in Amiens, La Fleche, and Bourges, and acted as instructor in Rouen and Tours. After his ordination in 1666, Carheil left for Canada, and spent two years at Quebec in preparation for mission work. From his entrance into the novitiate he had longed to shed his blood for Christ; the only martyrdom he found in Canada was that of thirty years of hardships and sufferings among the Hurons and the Iroquois. The first scene of his missionary labors was Cayuga, where he remained until the chiefs drove him from their canton in 1684. He taught grammar for three years at the College of Quebec, and was then assigned to the Mission of Mackinac. His strenuous opposition to the brandy traffic provoked the enmity of La Mothe Cadillac, the French commandant at that post, and he was compelled to return to Quebec in 1703. During most of the ensuing years he ministered to the French in Montreal and other towns. Father Carheil was a ripe scholar and possessed a rare knowledge of the languages of the tribes he evangelized. He left two manuscript volumes entitled “Racines Huronnes”.

EDWARD P. SPILLANE