Jean-Nicolas Laverlochère

Who was Jean-Nicolas Laverlochère?

Jean-Nicolas Laverlochère was a French missionary in Canada. He began his religious life as a lay brother in the Congregation of the Oblates, but feeling called to evangelize the natives of Canada, he was allowed to study for the priesthood, and was ordained on May 5, 1844 at L'Acadie, near Montreal. He was a missionary in the Saguenay district from 1844 to 1847, at Abitibi, Moose Factory, and other posts on Hudson Bay from 1847 to 1863, at Plattsburgh, New York from 1863 to 1868, and on Lake Timiskaming from 1868 to his death in 1884. He laboured for the conversion of the native tribes. His reputation as a zealous missionary spread throughout Catholic Europe to such an extent that he was ultimately recognized as the Apostle of Hudson Bay. A stroke of palsy interrupted his labours in the course of 1851. He died in 1884 and is buried in the Catholic cemetery in Fort-Témiscamingue.

Laverlochère, a village in Témiscamingue county, Quebec, founded 1904, was named for him.