JOSEPH DE LA ROCHE DAILLON, MISSIONARY - 16 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 16th of June

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JOSEPH DE LA ROCHE DAILLON, MISSIONARY

Joseph de la Roche Daillon was a French Catholic missionary to the Huron Indians and a Franciscan Recollet. He landed at Quebec, June 19, 1625, with the first Jesuits who came to New France, and at once set out with the Jesuit Father Brebeuf for Three Rivers, to meet the Hurons into whose country they hoped to enter. Owing to a report that the Hurons had drowned the Recollet Nicolas Viel, their missionary, the journey was put off. 

In 1626 La Roche Daillon was among the Hurons, leaving whom he passed to the Neutral Nation after travelling six days on foot. He remained with them for three months, and at one time barely escaped being put to death. This caused his return to the Hurons. In 1628 he went to Three Rivers with twenty Huron canoes, on their way to trade pelts with the French. From Three Rivers he journeyed to Quebec, and on the taking of the city, in 1629, the English sent him back to France. 

La Roche Daillon published an account of his voyage to and sojourn amongst the Neutrals, describing their country and their customs, and mentioning a kind of oil which seems to be coal oil. Sagard and Leclercq reproduced it in their writings, in a more or less abridged form.

[He died after his return to France on July 16, 1656.]

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913