De Paris, Ignace (Capuchin Missionary at Port-Royal, the Saint John River, Canseau, Saint-Pierre, Nipisiguit (Bathurst, N.B.), Kennebec; superior at Pentagouet (Castine, Maine))

De Paris, Ignace (Capuchin Missionary at Port-Royal, the Saint John River, Canseau, Saint-Pierre, Nipisiguit (Bathurst, N.B.), Kennebec; superior at Pentagouet (Castine, Maine))

Father Ignace de Paris was a Capuchin missionary in Acadia from 1641 to 1652. His main objective was to strengthen Capuchin Mission in the area and to ensure that it withstands the competition with other missions. He hoped to succeed in converting the Indigenous peoples through broadening his own views and developing a closer relation with their culture by studying Indigenous languages, which he found beautiful and complex. However, his mission failed because he got caught up in political struggle among the French and between the French and the British.
The most notable historical legacy that Father Ignace left is a letter that contains a favourable account of d’Aulnay, and an “extant account of the Capuchin mission” (CDB 1966), which offers a detailed and honest description of facts.

1641-1652

Person

Paris: Order of Friars Minor Capuchin of Paris; Port-Royal, the Saint John River, Canseau, Saint-Pierre, Nipisiguit (Bathurst, N.B.), Kennebec, Pentagouet (Castine, Maine): Capuchin Mission ; Tours, France: Order of Friars Minor Capuchin of Paris

J.-Roger Comeau, “IGNACE DE PARIS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 2, 2021, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ignace_de_paris_1E.html.

Unknown

France, city unknown

1662

Convent of Saint-Honoré in Paris, France

Member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin of Paris; Capuchin Missionary at Port-Royal, the Saint John River, Canseau, Saint-Pierre, Nipisiguit (Bathurst, N.B.), Kennebec; superior at Pentagouet (Castine, Maine); preacher at Tours

French; studied Indigenous languages

Little is known about Ignace de Paris before he joined the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin of Paris in 1961. He spent 11 years in Acadia, from 1641 to 1652, trying to reinforce the position of Capuchin Mission in New France.
Father Ignace worked as a missionary in Port-Royal, the Saint John River, Canseau, Saint-Pierre, Nipisiguit (Bathurst, N.B.), Kennebec, and Pentagouet (Castine, Maine). Between 1646-1647 he was a superior at Pentagouet. In his letters to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda he was portraying Acadia under the Capuchins as a flourishing colony, hoping to advance the Capuchin Mission in Acadia over others.
Based on the favourable account of d’Aulnay in one of the letters, it is safe to conclude that Father Ignace enjoyed the support of the Acadien governor. After d’Aulnay’s accidental death in 1650 there was a shift in power in the government of Acadia. The new political actor – the La Rochelle merchant Emmanuel le Borgne –didn’t see eye to eye with Father Ignace. Ignace de Paris was forced to leave New France and he never went back.
In 1652 he returned to France where he worked as a preacher in Tours until his death in 1662.

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Conflict and Change in Early Canadian History (Carleton HIST 1301)

Elena Jones