LAGRENÉ, PIERRE DE, priest, Jesuit, missionary, superior of the Jesuit residence in Montreal; b. 12 Oct. 1659 in Paris; d. 24 Nov. 1736 at Quebec.

Pierre de Lagrené entered the noviciate of Paris at the age of 18. He did his philosophical and theological studies at the Jesuit college in La Flèche, taught elementary Latin, classics, and rhetoric for 5 years at the college in Hesdin (department of Pas-de-Calais), and rhetoric for 2 years at the college in Eu (Normandy). He was ordained a priest in 1693, and arrived in Canada the following year.

From 1694 till 1696 he prepared for his apostolate among the Iroquois by studying the Huron language at Notre-Dame de Lorette, under the guidance of Father Couvert. From 1697 till 1701 and from 1704 till 1707 he was a missionary at Sault-Saint-Louis (Caughnawaga). Then he went to live at the Jesuit residence in Montreal, of which he was superior in 1716. He concerned himself with the construction of the chapel for this residence, consecrated 10 April 1710, and more particularly with the organization of the Congrégation des Hommes de Ville-Marie, which brought together the elite of Montreal society. When the Sulpicians took over this community after the death in 1791 of the last Jesuit in Montreal, Father Bernard Well, they continued to keep it up as Father Lagrené had conceived it.

In 1723 Father Lagrené was appointed to the Jesuit college in Quebec. There, as everywhere else, his life was devoid of any ostentation, but he rendered great services as assistant to the rector, director of the Congrégation de la Sainte-Vierge, and teacher. It was there that he died on 24 Nov. 1736.

Léon Pouliot