ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 17th of March
ARMAND DE LA RICHARDIE, MISSIONARY
Armand de la Richardie was born at Perigueux, June 7, 1686. He entered the Society of Jesus at Bordeaux on October 4, 1703, and in 1725 was sent to the Canada mission. He spent the two following years helping Father Pierre Daniel Richer at Lorette, and studying the Huron language.
In 1728 he went to Detroit to re-establish the long-interrupted mission to the dispersed Petun-Hurons in the West. Not a solitary professing Christian did he find, but among the aged not a few had been baptised. The local church was scarcely spacious enough to contain the fervent congregation of practising Hurons. During the night, 24/25 March, 1746, the father was stricken with paralysis, and on July 29 he was placed in an open canoe and thus conveyed to Quebec.
In 1747 the Hurons insisted on his returning to restore tranquillity to their nation. The father had almost completely recovered from his palsy, and willingly consented. He set out from Montreal on 10 September, and reached Detroit on October 20. In 1751, his failing strength obliged his superiors to once more recall him to Quebec (in 1751), and on June 30 he bade a final farewell to the Detroit mission. From the autumn of 1751, until his death on March 17, 1758, he filled various offices in Quebec College. His Huron name was Ondechaouasti.
Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913
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