Jesuit Missionaries of Colonial Canada

The first two Jesuit missionaries to Canada arrived at St. Lawrence, in the territory of the Wyandot (Huron) natives, in 1611.

By 1640, Jesuits in Canada had built five churches and performed one thousand baptisms.

The Jesuits lived alongside the Wyandot and learned their language. They hunted with the Wyandot, fished with them and worked in the fields. They helped to protect the Wyandot from colonists.

The Jesuits admired the Wyandots' simple lifestyles, their love for their families and their lack of concern with material possessions. They were impressed with the way the Wyandot people faithfully honored treaties.

However, the Jesuits did not like the Wyandots' practices of nudity, premarital sex and polygamy

Despite their efforts, the Jesuits failed to convert the Wyandot to Christianity. The Wyandot could not understand why anyone would want to go to a heaven where there was no polygamy, feasting, hunting or warfare. They did not think it was fair of God to allow only Christians to be saved, when the sin of Adam's fall was bone by all humanity.