Laval, François de Montmorency, Bl.

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LAVAL, FRANÇOIS DE MONTMORENCY, BL.

First bishop of Québec, Canada; b. April 30, 1623, Montigny-sur-Avre, France; d. May 6, 1708, Québec, Canada.

François Laval was the third son of Hughes de Laval, knight and lord of Montigny, and of Michelle de Péricard. As a younger branch of the Montmorency, his family bore its arms as well as those of the Lavals on its blazon. The coat of arms, engraved on a stone in the old church of Montigny-sur-Avre, is still extant, as is the lordly manor of the family. At age nine, Laval entered the royal college of La Flèche, a renowned Jesuit institution, where he began preliminary studies for the priesthood. Ten years later he transferred to the Jesuit Collège de Clermont in Paris for theological courses. While there he also frequented the Caen Hermitage, a house for closed retreats founded by Jean de Bernières-Louvigny, famous mystic and spiritual director who influenced his spiritual development. During Laval's prolonged studies, his father and two older brothers in turn were killed in 1645 while pursuing their military careers. Despite these trials and the material responsibility for his family, he was ordained in 1647 before renouncing his patrimonial rights. Already a canon in the cathedral of Évreux from the age of 12, he became its archdeacon soon after his ordination and diligently performed the functions of these offices until his resignation in 1654 to enter a hermitage in Caen.

His candidacy for the office of first bishop of New France was supported by the jesuits and the French court, and on June 3, 1658, Rome named him vicar apostolic with the title of bishop of Petrea, in partibus infidelium. Despite the intrigues of some French bishops, he finally received episcopal consecration Dec. 8, 1658, feast of the Immaculate Conception, to which he later consecrated his cathedral. The young bishop departed from La Rochelle on April 13, 1659, and after a brief stop at Percé, landed on June 16 at Québec, where the small colony received him with great joy. He immediately set about organizing the Canadian Church, until then without a real leader. Leaving the apostolate of the Native Americans to the Jesuits, he entrusted the care of the French colonists to the few secular priests. To guarantee a supply of diocesan priests, both from the colony and from his mother country, he founded the Seminary of Québec in 1663, a community designed not only to form priests but to provide lodgings for those worn out by their ministry. He soon associated this seminary to that of the Paris Foreign Mission Society and in 1668 he added a minor seminary. Laval undertook pastoral visits in his huge diocese, traveling great distances on snowshoes in winter and by canoe when the rivers were free of ice. Despite obstacles and infringements of the civil authority on the ecclesiastical domain, the Canadian Church grew rapidly and became firmly united. In 1674, after prolonged negotiations, made difficult by the gallicanism of the French episcopacy, Laval secured the erection of the Diocese of Québec. It was immediately subject to Rome and had jurisdiction over all the lands discovered by the French in North America.

From the beginning the bishop was aware of the disorders caused by the traffic of alcohol in the colony, particularly its tragic consequences among the natives. He energetically fought the abuses of the traders, who were often protected by the governor and his counselors, and even by the French court, and on three different occasions he went directly to the king to plead for the spiritual and temporal interests of the colony. He supported existing religious communities, helped in new foundations in the cities and countryside, and tried to manage the Recollect Franciscans, who returned to Canada through the intervention of the civil authorities. His great concern for education led him to consolidate the Seminary of Québec, which was already providing several Canadian priests. After securing for it a beautiful plot of land, he generously contributed to the construction of its buildings, one of which, dating from 1678, still exists. To ensure its future he acquired vast seigneuries and ceded to it all their goods. He also founded the School of Arts, Trades, and Agriculture of St. Joachim, eight leagues from Québec, and helped to open primary schools. On orders from the court he even tried instructing natives in his minor seminary.

By visits and ordinances he stimulated individual and community piety. Devotions to the Virgin and Ste. Anne de Beaupré (the well-known pilgrimage spot dates from his time) flourished, as well as to the Holy Angels and the Holy Family, whose confraternity and feast were instituted by his mandate. New France was the first country in the world to have an Office of the Holy Family. The fervor of the French establishments was remarkable and was imitated by some of the natives, among whom high mysticism was discovered, as with the young Iroquois maid Kateri tekakwitha. Laval himself solemnly baptized Daniel garakonthie, Onondaga chief. In 1688, weakened by cares, labors, and infirmities, Laval resigned and was replaced by Bp. J. B. de Saint-Vallier. The "old bishop" retired to his seminary, spending his time in prayer, works of mercy, and, frequently, at pontifical functions during his successor's long absences. Their differences over policy was a hard trial for the older man.

After Laval's death his reputation for sanctity kindled piety, and extraordinary favors were granted through his intercession. His cause of canonization was begun in

1878, introduced in Rome in 1890, and reached a decisive stage in the 1960 decree proclaiming the heroic nature of his virtues. He was beatified by John Paul II June 22, 1980. Laval's remains lie in a funeral chapel in the Seminary of Québec, a pilgrimage site.

Feast: May 6 (Canada).

Bibliography: La positio de la cause (Rome 1956), a collection of known letters. Quebecen. beatificationis et canonizationis ven. servi Dei Francisci de Montmorency-Laval Episcopi Quebecensis 1708: altera nova positio super virtutibus ex officio critice disposita (Rome 1956). n. baillargeon, Le séminaire de Québec sous l'épiscopat de Mgr de Laval (Québec 1972). É. bÉgin, François de Laval (Québec 1959). g. e. demers, Mgr. de Laval (Montréal 1951). É. gervais, Le Vén. François de Montmorency-Laval (Montréal 1952). a. h. gosselin, Vie de Monseigneur de Laval, 2v. (Québec 1890; new ed. 1906); Au pays de Mgr de Laval: letters de voyage (Québec 1910). h. houssart, Mgr. de Laval vu par son serviteur (Québec 1961). c. de la rochemonteix, Les Jésuites et la Nouvelle-France au XVIIme siècle, 3 v. (Paris 1895–96). a. vachon, François de Laval (Montréal 1980). Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1981) 235–58. L'Osservatore Romano, Eng. ed. 26 (1980) 10–11.