VIGNAL (Vignar, Vignard, Vignart), GUILLAUME, priest, Sulpician, chaplain to the Ursulines of Quebec, bursar of the seminary of Saint-Sulpice at Montreal; b. c. 1604 (L. Le Jeune) or 1615 in the diocese of Périgueux (O. Maurault); killed by the Iroquois 27 Oct. 1661.

Little is known of Vignal’s life before 1648. According to Le Jeune, he may have been ordained a priest about 1628. According to O. Maurault, he may have come to Canada as a secular priest to serve missions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In any case, on 13 Sept. 1648, we find him at Quebec with the title of chaplain to the Ursulines, as replacement for the prior, René Chartier, who had returned to France the preceding year. In return for an annual payment from the Ursulines of 100 francs, he concerned himself with various tasks on the community’s behalf, one of them being to clear land on their Saint-Joseph farm. In 1653 he received from Louis d’Ailleboust an acre of land which he donated to the Ursulines on 4 Oct. 1655, “being on the point of sailing for France,” a voyage from which he returned in 1656. On the occasion of a visit by Louis d’Ailleboust, then acting governor, to the Beaupré shore, Vignal accompanied him and, on 13 March 1658, blessed “the site of the church of the Petit Cap” (the future church of Sainte-Anne de Beaupré), the governor laying the first stone. Following the advice of M. de Queylus [see Thubières], Abbé Vignal decided to enrol in the Compagnie des Prêtres de Saint-Sulpice, which necessitated his going back to France that same year.

He returned to Canada on 7 Sept. 1659 together with the Sulpician Jacques Le Maistre, to take up his abode at Ville-Marie (Montreal). After Le Maistre’s assassination in August 1661, he replaced him as bursar of the seminary of Saint-Sulpice. Before two months had elapsed he suffered the same fate as his colleague, at the hands of the same enemies. Being anxious to complete the seminary which was under construction, he had gone with a group of workmen to the Île à la Pierre, on 25 Oct. 1661, to collect the necessary materials. They were surprised by a band of Iroquois, and in the ensuing struggle Vignal was seriously wounded, captured and carried off with three other prisoners: a certain Dufresne, the settler René Cuillerier*, and Claude de Brigeac. Judging Vignal to be too badly hurt to survive, the Iroquois finished him off two days later near the Cap-de-la-Madeleine. After scalping him, they are said to have roasted and eaten his flesh.

From the evidence of the documents of the period, one can surmise that Vignal had a brave, devoted, deeply humble character. He was too trusting, however, and seems at times to have lacked prudence and foresight. Carried away by his eagerness to complete the seminary, he had indeed neglected warnings of the presence of Iroquois on the island; these warnings would have enabled him to avoid being slaughtered. According to Jérôme Lalemant “he bore in life a very good repute among all the French, through his exercise of humility, charity and penitence – virtues which were highly developed in him, and made him beloved by every one.” The Ursulines had esteemed him highly and keenly regretted his departure.

Olga Jurgens