CHAUCHETIÈRE, CLAUDE, Jesuit missionary, mathematician, artist, and mystic; b. 6 Sept. 1645 and baptized four days later in the parish of Saint-Porchaire in Poitiers, France; son of Jean Chauchetière, an attorney, and Élisabeth de La Noue; d. 17 April 1709 in Quebec City.

First steps as a missionary

At age 17 Chauchetière witnessed the death of a priest who was on the point of departing for the Canadian mission field and said, “that made me feel that it was good to give oneself to God.” In 1663, on his 18th birthday, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Bordeaux. He felt much attracted to Canada because the possibilities for suffering and sacrifice seemed especially great there. He applied himself to his spiritual preparation for such evangelical labours. Yet despite his fervour “and his constant desire always to do the will of God” it seemed to him that his spiritual progress was slow and that each day undid the work previously accomplished. From 1665 to 1667 he studied philosophy at Poitiers and then taught at Tulle, La Rochelle, and Saintes successively. At the end of December 1672 he was in La Rochelle, where he met Francois-Joseph Le Mercier*, who encouraged him to go to Canada and gave him some lessons in Huron (Huron-Wendat) as well as a translated prayer book. Chauchetière learned the rosary in Huron and found consolation in praying in that language.

He came to Canada in 1677 (some say 1674) and spent one year at the Huron mission at Quebec prior to his assignment to the Saint-François-Xavier mission to the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) at Sault-Saint-Louis (Kahnawake, Que.). His name is found in the registers of La Prairie and Lorette in 1677. In that year Kateri Tekakwitha*, one of the converts at the Mohawk village of Gandawagué, came to Saint-François-Xavier and gave the new community the leadership it required. Chauchetière was much impressed by her mystical experiences and her deep spirituality; he had scarcely expected to find such spiritual depth among Indigenous converts. Kateri Tekakwitha lived at the Saint-François-Xavier mission until her death on 17 April 1680. The following year Father Chauchetière completed a portrait of her and wrote a brief biography of the “lily of the Mohawks.” He attributed his seemingly miraculous escape from the mission chapel, which collapsed during a gale, to her intercession.

An observer of New France

In 1682 Father Chauchetière put his artistic talents to further use. Employing a technique used by Jean Pierron* among the Mohawk a decade earlier, he made paintings of biblical scenes and illustrations of the sacraments and of the seven deadly sins for the residents of Caughnawaga (Kahnawake). These were bound into small books, which the Iroquois could readily take with them to the fields and forests. He is considered one of New France’s pioneer painters.

His numerous writings are always picturesque and entertaining, as well as instructive. The narrative of 19 years of labour at the Caughnawaga mission is fast-paced and permeated with the author’s mysticism. His letters indicate a deep concern for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Iroquois converts and the 100 or so French families for whom he was pastor from 1678 to 1685. His pamphlet on the harmful effects of alcohol addressed the chief social problem confronting his colleagues who sought to convert and assimilate Indigenous people. He described effects of the liquor trade, such as loss of life and property, sexual debauchery, and aggressiveness caused by drunkenness, but he offered no new or effective means of social control.

Teaching mathematics

Chauchetière did not enjoy good health. In 1692 he suffered from severe headaches and erysipelas and soon afterwards was weakened by a “bloody flux.” He wrote that during a visit to Fort Frontenac (Cataracoui) he was attacked by scurvy. His eyesight began to fail him during the later years of his ministry but he refused to wear spectacles.

His 16 years of service as a missionary to the Iroquois of La Prairie ended in 1694. On 20 September he wrote to a friend in Bordeaux that he was to have gone with Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville to Hudson Bay “to teach a class in mathematics on the ship.” He was replaced by Father Antoine Silvy; at the last moment Pierre-Gabriel Marest was substituted. Chauchetière then expected to be sent to the Huron mission at Michilimackinac, but instead he was sent to Montreal to teach boys “navigation, fortification, and other mathematical subjects.” He described his occupation as that of “proto-regent of Villemarie” and teacher of mathematics to 12 or 15 pupils, including some young officers. In 1694 he reported that he had two or three pupils who were on ships and one who was the assistant pilot of one of the king’s vessels.

In addition to teaching mathematics each afternoon from four to five o’clock he was expected to hear confessions on Sundays, and on the first Sunday of the month he was required to preach in the parish church. The latter duty he does not seem to have relished and he commented, “I must preach but I have no sermons.” He had always been much interested in scientific concepts, as his correspondence and relations reveal, and he took care to observe carefully and to record eclipses, parhelions, earthquakes, and other natural phenomena; his descriptions of the flora and fauna are vivid.

Chauchetière’s ministry at Montreal was hardly a peaceful one. He shared the Jesuits’ suspicion of the Sulpicians who were influential on the island. There were many confrontations with Bishop Saint-Vallier [La Croix], who on more than one occasion threatened him with interdiction. Chauchetière found his position made more difficult by the fact that he was confessor to Governor Louis-Hector de Callière of Montreal, a bitter enemy of the bishop. When Chauchetière boldly objected to the numerous restrictions and cases of reserved sin imposed by Saint-Vallier, the bishop questioned both the missionary’s motives and his moral integrity.

Little is known concerning the later life of Chauchetière except that he remained faithful to his calling until his death in Quebec City on 17 April 1709.

C. J. Jaenen