In his 2006 book The Invention of Journalism Ethics, Canadian journalist Stephen Ward cites the Relations as the first journalism in North America. The Relations have inspired several gems of significant Canadian literature, including the 1939 Governor General’s Award winner The Champlain Road by Franklin McDowell, E.J. Pratt’s epic poem “Brébeuf and his Brethren” and Brian Moore’s Black Robe, made into a film in 1991.
Most recently, historical novelist Suzanne Desroches has relied on the Jesuit Relations as background for her novel Bride of New France. As far as Desroches is concerned the Relations are too important for Canadian history to be ignored.
“This is something all young students should be at least familiar with,” she said. “And have read extracts, simply as a piece of literature.”
“It gives us a sense of the earliest Canadian context. That is very important,” said Jesuit historian Fr. Michael Knox. “Those seminal moments still play a role in who we are today.”
In the Relations the Jesuits demonstrate a kind of openness to and curiosity about Aboriginal culture matched by Huron openness toward the Jesuits and what they had to say about religion. That generous spirit of cultures meeting and mixing is a kind of model for the multiculturalism of our own time, said Knox.
The Relations are also our best source of information about Canada’s First Nations at the point of contact with Europeans.
“They still form the best written description of early aboriginal culture in Canada. In light of the different (First) Nations’ efforts to take hold and reinvigorate their own sense of cultural identity, the Relations are still a good tool for that — albeit coming from a perspective not their own,” said Knox.
The Relations also struck a blow for women in the New World. It was after reading the Relations that Marie de l’Incarnation decided her vocation would be best realized in New France. She came to New France in 1642 in answer to a plea in the Relations for a hospital and schools for girls. The Ursuline order she founded were the first women in history ever sent out on mission. It was the first step toward the apostolic orders of women religious who pioneered hospitals and schools throughout North America.
In answer to another plea in the Relations a rich donor helped establish the oldest institution of higher learning in North America.
“Fr. (Paul) Le Jeune had written in the Relations, ‘Would that we had a college,’ ” said Jesuit historian Fr. Jacques Monet.
The Jesuit college established in 1635 eventually became Laval University.
When modern scholars refer to the Jesuit Relations they generally include a much larger body of writing than the mid-century phenomenon in Paris. They refer to all the letters, reports and allied diaries produced by Jesuits in New France between 1611 and 1791.
The Relations are more than scholarly sources for Catholic readers, said Knox.
“Within the Relations we have chronicled the lives of some extraordinary men, eight of them saints and martyrs,” he said. “The accounts given of their lives are important for us because, as theologians today suggest, the lives of the martyrs and saints will be an integral part of the theology of our future.”
The Jesuit Relations opened up the New World to Europe
By Michael Swan, The Catholic RegisterThe most popular books in France in the 17th century were written in Canada. The Jesuit Relations told the story of brave and brilliant missionaries who stepped into an unimagined, fantastic world, learned its languages, spoke to its people about God and heroically endured incredible hardships.
From 1632 to 1664, edited collections of letters from Jesuit missionaries to their provincial superiors were published annually in book form. The letters recounted almost day-by-day the activities of Jesuits in New France, their observations concerning Aboriginals and the challenges they faced in the vast colony.
The books inspired a wave of immigration into the colony and raised the equivalent of millions of dollars from private donors and the royal court in Paris. The books formed Europe’s first ideas about the New World — both positive and negative — and encouraged a new, scientific mindset that came to define the Enlightenment.
Please support The Catholic Register
Unlike many media companies, The Catholic Register has never charged readers for access to the news and information on our website. We want to keep our award-winning journalism as widely available as possible. But we need your help.
For more than 125 years, The Register has been a trusted source of faith-based journalism. By making even a small donation you help ensure our future as an important voice in the Catholic Church. If you support the mission of Catholic journalism, please donate today. Thank you.
DONATE