Énemond Massé

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Énemond Massé (born at Lyon, 1574; died at Sillery, 12 May 1646) was a French Jesuit missionary, one of the first Jesuits sent to New France.

[edit] Life

Before leaving for French Canada, Massé was the confessor of Antoinette de Pons, the Marquise de Guercheville. Her interest in financing the Jesuit mission led to his deployment and helped provide rigorous support.

He went to Acadia with Pierre Biard, and when that mission failed, they established a new mission at the present Bar Harbor, Maine, which was soon after destroyed by the English. Massé was set adrift on the sea in an open boat. He succeeded in reaching a French ship and returned to France.

In 1625 he again set sail for Canada, and remained there until the fall of Quebec. He returned a third time in 1632, but, as he was in advanced in age, he no longer laboured among the natives, but lived mostly at Sillery, which he built as a reservation for the converts. A monument was erected to his honour at this place on the site of the old Jesuit Church which stood on the bank of the St. Lawrence River, a short distance above Quebec.

Unlike many of the Jesuits who went to New France in the seventeenth century, Massé left few written accounts of any significance. We learn about his experience at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, Acadia (present day Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia) primarily though the works of Biard and Marc Lescarbot, who wrote on behalf of Jean Biencourt and Charles Biencourt.