Saint François de Montmorency-Laval

First Bishop of Quebec
(1623–1708)

Saint François de Montmorency-Laval was born on April 30, 1623, at Château-Thierry in France, into one of the most ancient and noble families of the French kingdom. He was educated by the Jesuits at La Flèche and showed from his youth a deep piety and an attraction to the missionary vocation. He was ordained a priest and became associated with the Hermitage of Caen, a community of devout clergy who lived a semi-monastic life and were deeply influenced by the reforming spirituality of the French School of Jean-Jacques Olier and Cardinal Bérulle.

In 1658 he was appointed Vicar Apostolic for New France, the vast French colonial territory in North America, and consecrated a bishop. He arrived in Quebec in 1659 and immediately threw himself into the task of building a Church in a raw and difficult land. The colony of New France was small, the climate harsh, the distances enormous, and the challenges of evangelising both the European settlers and the indigenous peoples formidable. Laval met these challenges with remarkable energy, vision, and pastoral charity.

He founded the Seminary of Quebec in 1663, which would eventually become Laval University, and used it as the central institution for training clergy and governing the scattered parishes of the colony. He travelled constantly through his enormous diocese, often in the most difficult conditions, visiting settlements far up the St. Lawrence River and encouraging the missionaries who worked among the indigenous peoples. He was a firm defender of indigenous rights and a vigorous opponent of the liquor trade, which was destroying native communities.

He resigned his see in 1688 due to failing health, but remained in Quebec, living in great poverty at the Seminary, serving the sick and poor, and praying for the Church he had spent his life building. He died on May 6, 1708. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980 and canonised by Pope Francis in 2014. His feast is observed on May 6th in Canada and on July 22nd in some older lists.