BUISSON DE SAINT-COSME, JEAN-FRANÇOIS (baptized Bysson), priest of the seminary of Quebec, founder of the Sainte-Famille mission to the Tamaroa (Cahokia, Ill.); b. 30 Jan. and baptized 6 Feb. 1667, at Lauson; son of Michel Buisson (Bisson), dit Saint-Cosme and Suzanne Delicérasse (de Lizeiras); d. 1706 in the Mississippi country.

The family of the Abbé Buisson came originally from Saint-Cosme-de-Vair (department of Sarthe) in France [see Jean-François Buisson de Saint-Cosme (1660–1712)]. This place-name, which was often used, without commas, with the Buissons’ name to indicate their place of origin, finally became part of their surname. Explaining this onomastic peculiarity, Monsignor Amédée Gosselin wrote, regarding Jean-François the missionary, that “he was the son of Michel Buisson, de Saint-Cosme, naturally, and of Suzanne . . .” It was probably this sentence which, misunderstood, caused the English-language historian John C. Webster to say, basing himself upon Gosselin, that Michel’s son was illegitimate, whereas he was born three years after his parents’ marriage.

When he was eight, Buisson de Saint-Cosme entered the Petit Séminaire of Quebec. In 1690 he was received into the priesthood. In choosing to serve the church he had followed a vocation that was, so to speak, a family one. Indeed, his younger brother Michel also became a priest, his sister Marie-Françoise joined the nuns of the Hôtel-Dieu, and another sister, who has not been identified, received the habit of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame from Bishop Saint-Vallier [La Croix]. As for the parents, they gave up their station as well-to-do settlers to “give” themselves to the seminary and administered its farm on Île Jésus.

Buisson de Saint-Cosme was parish priest for the parish of Les Mines (Grand Pré) in Acadia from 1692 (or earlier) till 1697, during the stormy period of Governor Joseph Robinau* de Villebon’s administration. For a short time he also served as chaplain to the Micmac (Mi’kmaw). Like other priests in the colony he was accused of meddling in temporal affairs. His recall was even discussed. At the time certain of his superiors said that they were “distressed” by his “attitudes” and by his “supply of conceit,” which modest talents did not redeem.

He was chosen nonetheless to become one of the pioneers in the missionary work carried on by the Quebec seminary in the Mississippi Valley [see Albert Davion]. In April 1699, with the aim of acting as a link between the mission to the Taensa and Quebec, which were 1,000 leagues (about 2,760 miles) apart, Buisson de Saint-Cosme settled among the Tamaroa on the east bank of the Mississippi, six leagues downstream from its junction with the Missouri.

His church was barely finished when Father Julien Bineteau arrived unexpectedly in May. He had been sent from Pimitoui (Peoria) by the Jesuits; the latter did not look kindly upon these gentlemen of the Missions Étrangères who were coming to work in their territories. According to the assertions of the seminary’s priests and the explorer Henri Tonty, the Society of Jesus considered as part of its mission to the Illinois a village some 220 miles (80 leagues) away that had never been evangelized. Saint-Cosme’s adversaries claimed a prior right to carry on their apostleship to the Tamaroa, particularly because of the “flying missions” that they had conducted among these people when they came to Pimitoui or during their summer migrations. Consequently the Jesuits challenged the validity of the letters patent issued on 14 July 1698 by Bishop Saint-Vallier that officially authorized the directors of the seminary of Quebec to create a mission in the Tamaroa’s territory in case, the bishop specified, “other missionaries who did not belong to their body endeavoured, perhaps by virtue of letters patent granted them by us previously, to exclude them from the right to settle among the Indians called Tamaroas and to carry on missions.”

Father Bineteau accordingly entered into open competition with Saint-Cosme. According to the latter the Jesuit did everything in his power to prevent him from learning the prayers and the catechism in the Illinois language. Father Jacques Gravier even forbade him expressly to exercise any ministry, among either the French or the Indigenous people.

When Marc Bergier replaced him at the Sainte-Famille mission, Saint-Cosme went off to the lower Mississippi in July 1700. He took the place of the vicar general, François de Montigny*, among the widely dispersed Natchez. His apostolate there did not bear fruit because of his limited gift for languages, their scattered communities, and their beliefs, which made them ill disposed to receiving the message of the gospel. We might add that he was not fond of Indigenous people and even called for servants who were “capable of standing up to the most wicked Indian,” for, he said, “it is awkward for a missionary to have to punch an Indian.”

Saint-Cosme’s misgivings were well founded, for at the end of 1706, while going down to Mobile, he was killed by the arrows of the Chitimacha. According to a document in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the origin and author of which seem to be unknown, it was supposedly discovered after his death that Saint-Cosme had been the lover of a woman from the family of the Natchez’ Great Sun. He was even supposed to have had a son with her: the Natchez chief named Saint-Cosme who, in 1729, directed a murderous attack on the French. This relationship, and the interpretation of this document, remains the subject of historiographical debate. These assertions may seem rather ironic: Saint-Cosme was intransigent with regard to morality and in his correspondence he vigorously stigmatized the debauchery of the French and the depravity of Indigenous people.

Céline Dupré