François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon (missionary)

François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon (1641–1679)[1] was a Sulpician missionary in New France. He was ten years older than his half-brother, François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai.

Little is known of François in his early years beyond his birth in Château de Fénelon in Périgord until he left for the missions of New France in 1667 as yet not an ordained priest. Bishop Laval took care of this matter, ordaining him in June, 1668. He and M. Claude Trouvé left almost immediately to establish a mission for the Iroquois, at their request, near the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario. (A letter by Trouvé is appended to François Dollier de Casson's Histoire du Montréal and gives a good summary of the Kenté (Quinté) mission).

Fenelon spend the winter of 1669-1670 at Ganatsekwyagon, an Iroquoian village at the mouth of the Rouge River and resulted in the nearby Frenchman's Bay being named for him.[2]

He was forced to return to France in 1675 and died in 1679.

References

  1. ↑ Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
  2. ↑ Markham 1793-1900, Isabel Champion, 1979, pg4


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