The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 8: Quebec, Hurons, Cape Breton, 1634-1636
History
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 8: Quebec, Hurons, Cape Breton, 1634-1636
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada; Jesuits -- Missions; Jesuits -- North America
IT seems that our Lord wishes to authorize the purity of the
immaculate Conception of his holy Mother, by the [24] great
assistance he gives to those who honor this chief dignity of the
Virgin. I sent last year to Your Reverence the formula of a vow
which we made according to your advice in all our Residences, on
the eighth of December, a day dedicated to this sacred Conception.
We concealed this act of devotion, and Your Reverence has published
it, using the same words in which we made the vow, and in which we
will pledge ourselves again, God helping, every year on the same
day. The blessings that heaven has bestowed upon our insignificant
labors, since that time, are so evident that I would like to urge
upon all our Fathers of Old France, yea even of all the world, and
all the good souls who cherish the conversion of these Tribes, to
ally themselves with us through these holy vows, uniting all the
fasts, all the prayers, all the sufferings, all the most secret
acts of virtue, of those who will enter into this alliance, to be
presented to the Divinity in honor of and as an act of thanks for
the immaculate Conception of the holy Virgin, in order to obtain
through her mediation the application of the blood of her Son [25]
to our poor Savages, the entire abnegation and love for +JESUS+
on the Cross, with a truly Christian death, to those who procure
their salvation and to all those associated in the practice of this
act of devotion, the formula of which is given at the end of last
year's Relation. I wrote in that Relation that we had baptized
twenty-two persons; this year, since these vows were presented to
God, we have baptized more than a hundred, and, before that, very
few. In all, since the departure of the Ships up to the present, we
have made one hundred and fifteen Savages children of the Church.
Furthermore, God has given us great openings for the salvation of
these Tribes, making them resolve upon two points which show that
the faith has entered into their souls. The first is, that they
are not vexed at us for baptizing their sick children; indeed,
they even summon us to do this. The second is, that the more aged
ones are likewise beginning to wish to die Christians, asking for
baptism when they are sick, in order not to go down into the fires
with which they are threatened. In short, we have obtained what we
hardly dared to ask for, so greatly [26] do we see them alienated
from their former inclinations; that is, the promise to give us
some little girls, but I will speak of this in its place. All these
favors have come from heaven, through the merits of the holy Virgin
and of her glorious Spouse, since the vows which I have mentioned.
Let us come down to particulars, and follow the order of time of
these Baptisms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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