CHOLENEC, PIERRE, priest, Jesuit, missionary; baptized 30 June 1641 in Landerneau, France; son of Jean Le Cholenec and Jacquette L’Haridon; d. 30 Oct. 1723 at Quebec City.

Father Cholenec entered the Jesuit order in Paris on 8 Sept. 1659. Having an easy-going mind and amiable disposition, he did not make one think of his native land, “where the laws of salvage encouraged wreckers.” While he was still doing his philosophical studies he was appointed prefect to Prince Rinaldo d’Este.

After completing his theological studies at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris, he set out for Canada in 1674. The following year he was at Kentaké (La Prairie de la Magdeleine), where he distinguished himself as a preacher and spiritual director. There he met Jacques Largillier, dit Le Castor, and Pierre Porteret, two donnés who had assisted Father Jacques Marquette* in his last hours. Cholenec immediately prepared a detailed account of Marquette’s death; it was the first of several such descriptions. In the autumn of 1677, at the Saint-François-Xavier mission (Kahnawake, Que.) to the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), he welcomed Kateri Tekakwitha*, who had just arrived from the Mohawk canton, and became her confessor. As did his confrères in the mission, and as he did also with all those under his direction, he sought to christianize her rather than assimilate her. More than once this missionary point of view aroused Governor Buade* de Frontenac’s anger.

From 1683 to 1688 Father Cholenec worked at Lorette; he then returned to the Iroquois mission, of which he was the superior from 1695 to 1699. At that time he wrote a biography of Kateri Tekakwitha, in a natural, correct style. In 1700 he was the superior of the Jesuits in Montreal but he later returned to Saint-François-Xavier, where he held the office of superior from 1712 to 1722. He composed another life of Kateri Tekakwitha, intended for the Lettres édifiantes, and, in Latin, a letter and a biography of her intended for the general of the Jesuits in Rome. This last letter was followed by an account of the little-known martyrdom of several Indigenous people of his mission.

Shortly before his death, Cholenec enjoyed the happiness of living in the new Jesuit residence at the very centre of the new mission site, which had been built thanks to his efforts. It was inhabited by this order until the beginning of the 21st century. He died on 30 Oct. 1723 at the Jesuit college in Quebec City.

Henri Béchard