The Jesuit "Relations"

A Biography

Micah True

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9780228025436
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

The Jesuit Relations, a series of annual reports produced between 1632 and 1673 detailing the experiences of Society of Jesus missionaries in what is now Eastern Canada, have long been an influential source on the history of New France and encounters between European settlers and Indigenous Peoples. The question of what exactly the Relations are, and who had a hand in composing the versions that circulated, has been given far less attention.

The Jesuit "Relations" challenges conventional descriptions of these annual reports as narratives crafted solely by Jesuit missionaries. Micah True demonstrates that they were in fact shaped by a diverse array of contributors, including Indigenous people, lay settlers, nuns, editors in Paris, and readers in France. The Relations were also the product of contextual factors, he explains, such as the longstanding Jesuit epistolary tradition, the annual rhythms of the shipping schedule, and the Parisian book trade, and he details the connections between the published Relations and other texts written at the time. Tracing the history of readers' encounters with the Relations, True analyzes the three major editions that have appeared since the mid-nineteenth century, showing how each of them presents the reports differently, and how these differences have influenced scholars' understanding of the texts.

Shining a new light on the Jesuit Relations, True reveals a richer and more complex picture of a primary source that has played a major role in public understanding of the colonial history of North America.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 “I Come Here Like the Pioneers”: Paul Le Jeune’s Briève Relation and the Jesuit Tradition of Edifying Letters
• 2 “What Occurred Most Noteworthy”: Jérôme Lalemant’s Journal and the Preparation of Annual Reports from New France
• 3 Paul Ragueneau, Christophe Regnaut, and the Making of a Tale of Martyrdom in the Relation of 1648–49
• 4 Indigenous Literacies Meet Alphabetic Writing: The Case of Joseph Chihoatenhwa
• 5 Writer, Reader, Colleague: Marie de l’Incarnation and the Jesuit Relations from New France
• 6 Provincial, Procurator, Printer: From Manuscript to Book in Paris
• 7 Reading the Jesuit Relations from the Seventeenth Century to Today
• Conclusion and Future Directions
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index