François de Montmorency-Laval

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François de Montmorency-Laval
Montmorency-Laval Coat of Arms
Tomb of the bishop in Notre-Dame de Québec

François de Montmorency-Laval (born April 30, 1623 in Montigny-sur-Avre near Chartres , † May 6, 1708 in Québec ), from the Laval line of the French Montmorency family , was the first Catholic bishop in Québec ( Canada ). He was the son of Hugues de Montmorency-Laval , landlord of Montigny, and Michelle de Péricard . The clergyman always only signed with the name François de Laval and never used the name Montmorency himself . He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church .

biography

François de Laval was elected Vicar Apostolic of New France and arrived in Québec on June 16, 1659, after having been ordained Titular Bishop of Petra in Palestine on December 8, 1658 in the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés . On March 26, 1663 he founded La communauté des prêtres du Séminaire de Québec ("The Community of Priests of the Seminary of Québec "), from which the Grand Séminaire de Québec emerged . In 1668 they opened a residential complex for the future priests, Le Petit Seminaire de Québec , which became a public college after the British conquest in 1765 .

He was a tireless clergyman. He made three trips to France under very difficult conditions . He wandered his entire diocese , which stretched from the banks of the Saint Lawrence River to Acadia and the Mississippi , in canoe , on foot and on snowshoes, to visit the local people. He also took special care of the Indians , whose dignity he defended by opposing the merchants who gave them alcohol ( eau de vie ) in order to then take advantage of them.

Twice, in 1663 and in 1682, he was Provisional Governor General of New France . He died on May 6, 1708 and was buried in the Notre-Dame de Québec basilica , where his bishopric was located.

He is the namesake of the city of Laval and Laval University in Québec . François de Laval was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 22, 1980 . François de Laval was the model for the character of the same name in Willa Cather's novel Shadows on the Rock , New York 1931 (German: Schatten auf dem Fels. Zürich 1956). On April 3, 2014, Pope Francis added him to the register of saints of the Catholic Church.

literature

  • Bertrand de Latour: Mémoires sur la vie de Monseigneur de Laval, premier évêque de Québec . - Cologne: Montiens, 1761
  • Auguste Gosselin : Vie de Monseigneur de Laval . - Québec, 1890
  • François-Xavier Garneau : Histoire du Canada  : depuis sa découverte jusqu'à nos jours. - Montréal: Beauchemin & Valois, 1882
  • Jean Baptiste Antoine Ferland: Cours d'histoire du Canada . - Québec: NS Hardy, 1882
  • Camille de Rochemonteix: Les Jesuites et la Nouvelle-France au XVIIIe siècle  : d'après des documents inédits. - Paris, 1896
  • PF Richaudeau (ed.): Lettres de la révérende mère Marie de l'Incarnation . - Tournai: Casterman, 1876
  • Souvenir of the fetes du Monument Laval . - Quebec, 1908
  • Émile Bégin: François de Laval . - Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval, 1959
  • Paul Duclos:  Laval, François de Montmorency. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 4, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-038-7 , Sp. 968-969.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Commons : François de Montmorency-Laval  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inclusion in the Register of Saints ( Promulgazione di Decreti della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi , Italian), in: Press Office of the Holy See, Daily Bulletin of April 3, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Montmorency-Laval, François de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Laval, François de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first Catholic bishop in Canada
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1623
PLACE OF BIRTH Montigny-sur-Avre near Chartres
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1708
Place of death Quebec