Jesuits Conversion
Jesuits and their Methods of Conversion The first Catholic missionaries, also know as Jesuits,
came to New France in 1634 to spread Christianity and European values. In 1639, the Jesuits
established Sainte Marie aux Hurons by the St. Lawrence River, creating a central base for all
missionary work. By 1672, there had been over 16,000 baptisms of the native population in New
France. Father Jean de BrГ©beuf wrote about the Huron confederacy extensively. These writings
included his thoughts on how to convert the Huron according to their traits and virtues, and how
both groups found common ground within both of their different spiritualities. This paper will
examine how the Jesuits feelings of superiority over the Huron people led to conversion... Show
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In addition to the drought, sickness and death began to plague the Hurons, with the increasing death
toll having no end in sight. This made many start casting doubts on the recent arrival of the Jesuits.
Nevertheless, their shaman s prayers and rituals seemed to be useless against this new plague, and
many became desperate for any alternatives. De BrГ©beuf blamed the Huron people and their sins,
stating their lust and gluttony, among other things, were causing the drought and sickness. He
stated that in order for their sins to be cleansed, they must participate in novena, a nine day
procession, to show God the their repentance. The novena was a promise to to the Huron; once they
had accepted Christianity, their sins would be washed away, bringing rain and good health for all in
Huronia. On the final day of the procession, rain finally came. This caused many of the Huron, who
had not already done so, to convert to Christianity. This event made the Jesuits the most powerful
and covered shamans within the Huron people. Missionaries spread across the area, bringing
Christianity throughout Huronia and baptizing many in the confederacy. In 1635, the Huron
invited the Jesuits to engage in the Huron Feast of the Dead, which was an important learning
opportunity for the Jesuits. The missionaries wanted to use this event to evaluate how they could
incorporate Christianity into the Huron tradition; the Feast could be admired, participated in, and
built upon, to make up Huron Christianity. A mixture of both the Huron culture and spirituality and
European Catholicism, Huron Christianity was the Jesuits way of making the converting process of
the Hurons easier. Instead of trying to bully their way through with ideas that the Huron people
would never completely comprehend or want to embrace, the Jesuits integrated Huron traditions,
like the Feast of the Dead, to match stories and
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