GARNIER, JULIEN, priest, Jesuit, missionary, superior of the mission in New France; b. 6 Jan. 1643 and baptized on the 26th in Allineuc, France; son of Jules Garnier and Mathurine Frelaut; d. 30 Jan. 1730 in Quebec City.

Julien Garnier entered the Society of Jesus in Paris on 25 Sept. 1660. Two years later, on 27 Oct. 1662, he arrived at Quebec, where for three years he taught at the Jesuit college while preparing to serve as a missionary by studying Indigenous languages. On 10 April 1666 he received the priesthood from Bishop François de Laval – becoming the first Jesuit to be ordained a priest in Canada. Of his first mass, which was celebrated on 12 April, according to the Journal des Jésuites: “. . . we gave a dinner in our reception-room, as on the feast of St. Ignatius, to all the authorities, and to the six [Indigenous] captains who were at Quebec.” Under Father Jérôme Lalemant*’s guidance Garnier continued his theological studies, which were approved in an examination “on the whole of theology, in keeping with the custom of the Society” on 12 April 1668.

At the end of that month he went to join Father Jacques Bruyas among the Oneida, and a few months later he went to live with the Onondaga. In his mind the latter had only been a temporary mission, and the Onondaga objected when he wanted to rejoin his post among the Oneida. As he argued that he could not remain there without a chapel and a companion, the Onondaga chief Garakontié*, who had not converted, did not hesitate to take up the challenge. Some days later the chapel was up, and Garakontié was on his way to Quebec to obtain companions for Father Garnier; it was in this way that Fathers Pierre Millet and Étienne de Carheil joined the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) missions.

Father Garnier toiled among the Iroquois until 1685, not without some merit, for he encountered a great deal of hostility. He wrote of the problems of converting the Iroquois: “One of the great obstacles encountered is found in dreams, which seem to constitute this country’s sole Divinity, to which [the Iroquois] defer in all things.” In his relation for 1672 Garnier recounts that the Iroquois believe that “the black-gowned men are here only as spies, and convey all information to Onnontio – that is, to Monsieur the governor.” Also, more than one attempt was made upon his life; Garnier affirms that “humanly speaking, my life depends on that little girl’s health . . . [or] on the march of a French army to this country.” In a letter addressed to Governor Joseph-Antoine Le Febvre* de La Barre and dated 23 April 1684 Garnier opposed military action against the Iroquois, which would have compromised the missions. After Governor Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville’s 1687 expedition missionary work in the Iroquois country did become impossible, and Garnier then exercised his ministry at Sault-Saint-Louis (Kahnawake, Que.) until he was appointed superior of the Huron (Wendat) mission at Lorette, near Quebec, in 1691. In 1694, however, he returned to Sault-Saint-Louis.

At the discussions preceding the great peace treaty between France and the First Nations concluded in 1701 at Montreal, Garnier translated Governor Louis-Hector de Callière’s speech into Huron. This peace treaty permitted the reopening of the Iroquois missions, and in 1702 Garnier, accompanied by Father François Vaillant de Gueslis, went back into the field, devoting himself this time particularly to the Seneca. In 1709, at the instigation of Peter Schuyler, four of the Five Cantons of the Iroquois denounced the treaty of 1701, and Garnier again returned to Sault-Saint-Louis. In 1716 he became superior of all the missions in New France; he held this office for three years. In a short, unpublished account devoted to him, Father Félix Martin* wrote: “During his administration the accusation of engaging in trade was revived against the missionaries and complaints were carried as far as Rome. The archives of the Gesù contain a letter by Father Garnier, dated 21 Oct. 1718 and addressed to his general, in which he explains what had given rise to this calumny. Pelts were, so to speak, the country’s currency. Farmers used them to pay their rent. They were given in particular to the church to pay for masses. This was money which after a certain period had to be converted into coin.”

Between 1712 and 1716 Father Garnier was an intimate friend of Father Joseph Lafitau*. In a famous work, the latter bore this witness to Garnier: “Above all I have profited from the knowledge of a former Jesuit missionary named Father Julien Garnier, who had devoted himself to the missions from the time of his noviciate and who spent more than 60 years in them . . . . He knew the Algonquian language fairly well, but he was master particularly of the Huron language and the five Iroquois dialects . . . ; it was, I say, in my dealings with this virtuous missionary, with whom I was intimately acquainted, that I derived all that I have to say here about the Indians.”

When his three years as superior were at an end, Father Garnier returned to Sault-Saint-Louis, where he worked until 1728. He died on 31 Jan. 1730 at the college in Quebec City after 67 years and 3 months of missionary work. Of all the Jesuits who came from France in the 17th century, he was the one who worked and lived longest in Canada.

Léon Pouliot