René Ménard (2 March 1605 – ca. 4 July 1661) was a French Jesuit missionary explorer who traveled to New France in 1641, learned the language of the Wendat, and was soon in charge of many of the satellite missions around Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. Ménard also worked with the Iroquois, and was said to speak six Indian dialects.Kellogg, Louise P., "The First Missionary in Wisconsin", The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Volume 4, number 4, June 1921. He survived the continuous attacks from the Iroquois on the Huron and disappeared in 1661.
Biography René Ménard was born in Paris on 2 March 1605. He joined the Jesuits there on 7 September 1624. After the usual course of studies at La Flèche, Bourges, and Orleans, he set out from Dieppe in the beginning of May 1640. Arriving at Québec he was assigned to work among the Hurons, laboring first, however, among the Nippissings.Campbell, Thomas. "René Ménard." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 14 January 2018 From 1651 to 1656 he was the superior at Trois-Rivières.Monet, J., "Ménard, René", Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003– From 1656 to 1658 he was a missioner to the Cayuga, and later to the Oneida.Corrigan, Michael. "Register of the Clergy Laboring in the Archdiocese of New York", Historical Records and Studies, Vol. 1, United States Catholic Historical Society, 1899 p. 24
In 1660, Ménard was sent west from Montreal with a trading party of Ottawa and the fur traders Radisson and Groseilliers, heading for what is now northern Wisconsin, aiming to establish a mission among the Ottawa. The 55-year-old Ménard didn't expect to return. The night before departure he wrote to a friend,
Leaving Trois-Rivières, Québec at the end of August, they paddled for six weeks up the St. Lawrence, up the Ottawa River, and across Georgian Bay. The party didn't go easy on the frail Ménard. Separated from the French traders and his assistant, he was forced to paddle continuously and carry heavy loads with meager rations. When they passed Sault Ste. Marie into Lake Superior, Ménard had penetrated further into the Great Lakes region than any Western official before.Schmirler, A. A. A., "Wisconsin's Lost Missionary: The Mystery of Father Rene Menard", The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Volume 45, number 2, winter, 1961-1962. After his party's canoe was destroyed by a falling tree in mid-October, Ménard wintered with some Ottawas at Keweenaw Bay near what is now L'Anse, Michigan. He sheltered in a hut he made of tree branches and at times he subsisted on fish begged from the Indians and boiled moss. Despite the hardships and resistance from many Indians, he baptized and taught the Christian faith."A priest journeys to a Wisconsin village of exiled Hurons in 1661." Wisconsin Historical Society. This page links to translations of Ménard's final letters.
In the spring he heard that a band of Hurons in the interior was starving, and he set off to minister to them, though he himself had only a bag of sturgeon and some dried meat. He and a fur trader nicknamed L'Esperance walked and canoed down into what is believed to be present-day Taylor County in north central Wisconsin. At a rapids a day's journey from the Huron village, Ménard, now weak with hunger himself, became separated from his companion, and disappeared. His cassock and breviary were later found among the Dakotas. A roadside sign in Iron County, Michigan, along the Michigamme River claims Ménard died there on 4 July 1661. A granite monument in Lincoln County, Wisconsin, indicates that he disappeared while portaging around Bill Cross Rapids in the nearby Wisconsin River.
Bishop François de Laval of Québec wrote of Ménard and the fur traders, "Seven Frenchmen attached themselves to this Apostle, they to catch beavers, he to gain souls."
See also Black Robe, a novel that portrays the world through which Ménard moved List of people who disappeared mysteriously (pre-1910)
References
External links René Menard: A Life Story Which Connects the Finger Lakes Region of New York with France, Québec, Georgian Bay and Wisconsin by Alexander McGinn Stewart The Wisconsin Journey by Kurt Leichtle "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France 1610-1791" Chapter VIII describes Menard's final mission.