Claude Aveneau
This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (May 2014) ) |
Claude Aveneau (December 25, 1650 in
Background
Aveneau entered the novitiate in Paris in 1669. In 1671 he began teaching at the Jesuit college in
Missionary work
His first assignment was to the mission at
Dispute with Cadillac
In 1702 Aveneau incurred the displeasure of
The only documents extant on the matter are by Cadillac, and he was not always trustworthy. We know that Cadillac blamed Aveneau for the slow pace at which the Miamis of the St. Joseph River moved to Detroit. Cadillac removed Aveneau from his post, replacing him by a
Afterwards
In the summer of 1702, Mermet left to go as chaplain at the post which Louis Juchereau de St. Denis was trying to build on the Ohio River near the present-day city of Cairo, Illinois. He seems never to have returned to the St. Joseph mission. Mermet's successor as Aveneau's assistant was Father Jean-Baptiste Chardon, who arrived there in 1705 and succeeded Father Aveneau in 1711.
In 1708 Governor
In 1711, being very ill, Aveneau retired to Quebec. A 500-km canoe trip by a man who was already exhausted was an unfortunate necessity. He died at Quebec on September 14, 1711. Father Joseph Germain, superior general of the Canadian missions, wrote an account of his life in which he praised his patience, his courage, and his charity towards friend and foe alike.
Bibliography
- (in French) J.B.A. Ferland, Cours d'Historie du Canada (Quebec, 1865), II, 336.
- George Paré, The Catholic Church in Detroit, 1701–1888 (Detroit, 1951), 78–140.
- (in French) J.S. Camille de Rochemonteix, Les Jésuites et la Nouvelle-France au XVIIe siècle (Paris 1895-96), III, 477, 512ff.
- (in French) J.S. Camille de Rochemonteix, Les Jésuites et la Nouvelle-France au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1906), I, 65ff.
External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- George Paré, "St. Joseph's Mission", Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. XVII, June 1930-March 1931
- Local history of Niles, Michigan
- Wilstach, J. Walter (1910). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7.
see paras RELIGION...History
.