Pierre Cholonec

Cholonec, PIERRE, biographer and French missionary among the Canadian Indians, b. in the Diocese of St-Poi-de-Leon, Finistere, June 29, 1641; d. in Quebec, October 30, 1723. Cholonec entered the Society of Jesus in Paris, October 8, 1659, and taught in the colleges of Moulins and Eu from 1661 to 1670, except three years spent at La Fleche in the study of philosophy. After four years of theology in Paris, he departed for Canada in August. 1674. For many years he was stationed among the Indians at St. Francis Xavier du Sault, where the saintly Indian maiden Catherine Tegakwitha died. Father Cholonec wrote her life which was published in the “Lettres edifiantes” (1781), VI, 40-100; (1839), I, 647-662. A translation is given in Kip, “Jesuit Missions” (New York, 1846), I, 79, 116; but this is only an abridgment of a more extended biography preserved in the archives of the Jesuits in Montreal. In later years Cholonec was superior of the Jesuit residence in Montreal.

E. P. SPILLANE