DANIÉLOU, JEAN-PIERRE, priest, Jesuit, missionary; b. at Brest, France, 15 July 1696; d. at Quebec 23 May 1744.

Jean-Pierre Daniélou entered the Jesuit order in Paris in 1713. He taught humanities at the Jesuit College in Quebec from 1715 to 1720, then at Arras, France (1720–22). He next studied philosophy at La Flèche (1722–23) and theology at Paris (1723–27), where he was ordained in 1727. By 1728 he had returned to Quebec and probably taught theology there for a few years. In the autumn of 1731 he was chosen to fill the duties of missionary to the Malecite Indians at Médoctec (Meductic, N.B.) on the Saint John River, replacing Father Jean-Baptiste Loyard* who had died there in June.

Médoctec, near the junction of the Médoctec (Eel) and Saint John rivers, had been a permanent fortified village, based on horticulture and hunting, since before the arrival of the white man. The French had missionaries posted there by the end of the 17th century and the Malecites became faithful allies of the French in war. For several reasons the system began to break down during the period of Daniélou’s mission at Médoctec. The English in Nova Scotia were now beginning to push more vigorously their territorial claims in the area. Daniélou himself did not seem to have the leadership qualities which Fathers Loyard, Joseph Aubery, and Simon Girard* de La Place had displayed before him. At about this time also the first Acadian settlers began to establish themselves in the upper Saint John River valley. With their arrival, the Indians became more interested in commerce. More time was spent away from the village hunting for furs to trade, and some Indians left Médoctec altogether to move closer to the Acadian settlement at Sainte-Anne (Fredericton). Daniélou conducted a census of the Saint John River Acadians for the French government in 1739 and counted 117 in the upper valley. Around 1740 he returned to Quebec, and during the wars of the 1740s his successor, Father Joseph-Charles Germain*, had to range over even wider territories to organize the Indians.

David Lee