Récollets

A reformed branch of the Franciscan* Order, they were asked by Samuel de Champlain* to give aid in the evangelization of the Indians in Canada. In 1615 three fathers and a lay brother arrived in Quebec to begin their devoted and self-sacrificing labors among the Algonquin tribes whose nomadic way of life soon made the fathers despair of their conversion. They decided therefore to seek out more settled tribes and traveled west to labor, with some success, among the Hurons. Financial problems in 1623 forced them to ask the Jesuits for assistance, but cooperation between the two orders was difficult. The Récollets encouraged intermingling of Indians and French and cooperation with the Huguenots* in civil matters; the Jesuits held opposite views. The English in 1629 and again in 1760 put an end to the Récollets’ labors, but in each case they returned to continue their Canadian ministries.