Gabriel Lalemant

About Gabriel Lalemant

Gabriel Lalemant was born in Paris on October 3, 1610. According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Paris in 1630 and took an additional vow to serve in foreign missions. After years teaching and studying at Jesuit colleges in France, he arrived in Quebec in 1646 and joined the Huron mission in 1648. The DCB notes that the 1649 Jesuit Relation by Paul Ragueneau is the principal narrative source for his life; its original French 1650 edition is preserved in digital facsimile.During the March 16, 1649 attack on the missions of Saint-Ignace and Saint-Louis, Lalemant and Jean de Brébeuf were captured at Saint-Louis and taken to Saint-Ignace. The DCB recounts that Lalemant’s torture began that evening and ended the following morning, March 17. Parks Canada independently places the attack and capture in the same mission context and lists him among the Canadian Martyrs. The DCB records his canonization by Pope Pius XI in 1930. The group is commemorated October 19 in the U.S. and September 26 by Canadian Jesuits.