CONCERNING Father Peter Biard, who performed so great a part in the establishment of the Canadian Mission, Father Joseph Juvency[46] writes these things in his History, under the year 1622:
"Of all who during the present year have departed this life in the province of Lyons, the most regretted was Father Peter Biard, of Grenoble, who, was taken away at Avignon. With the desire of propagating religion, he had journeyed to the barbarous Canadians, and had been among the first settlers of that country, as has been narrated in the fifth part (of this volume). Upon being driven thence by the heretical English, and compelled to return to France, he entirely devoted himself [ii] to the service of his countrymen; and, that he might provide for their salvation, in no respect showed himself deficient either in labor or diligence. His industry, however, was especially enjoyed by the Paray le Monial, in the prefecture of Charolles, which community he long served with the customary ministrations of the order. Finally, the prefect of the district, Marchio Ragne, upon being ordered by the king to lead troops into Campania against Ernest von Mansfeld,[47] who was threatening the frontiers of France, had selected Biard as his companion during the expedition, and as a minister of sacred rites. Upon that occasion one would doubt whether the charity of the apostolic man, or his patience, were the more remarkable. There was in the camp a great scarcity of provisions. Rations were so poorly furnished to the soldiers that some perished with hunger. Biard divided among the most needy of them, both his own allowance and whatever small sums of money he had collected by begging from the more wealthy, depriving himself of daily sustenance, that he might do a kindness to others. He had retired to Avignon, [iii] at last, that he might with a few days' leisure refresh his energies, which had been worn out by so many toils. But divining, as it were, that the end of all labors and of life was at hand, he spent all that period in disciplining his spirit by pious meditations among the novices; and, although an aged man who had served his time, so adapted himself to the earliest form of the novitiate, that he omitted none of those exercises by which beginners are educated to a contempt of themselves and of the world. While intent upon these, and already thinking of nothing but heavenly things, death seized him on the 17th day of November."
To these things it will perhaps not seem useless to add what has been written by an earlier author, namely, Philip Alegambe,[48] in the Bibliography of the Authors of the Society of Jesus, under the word Biard:
"Peter Biard, a French citizen, born in Grenoble, a laborer of great zeal, and of very many laurels which [iv] he first gathered in the dreadful and pathless forests of the Canadian tribes of North America. Although suffering there every extremity, he still experienced nothing more brutal than the Heretics. The barbarous race, forgetting its savageness, was learning to venerate the character of this most righteous man; when, behold, Heresy, hostile to holiness and ignorant of God, burst, together with the English, upon the shores of Canada. The reward of a very laborious expedition was great,—to drive thence the hated Jesuit. For some time he was kept in bonds; and at last, stripped of everything, he was with difficulty restored to France. But meanwhile, until it was safe to return to the wilds of Canada, he took vengeance in a holy manner for the injury inflicted by the Heretics; during the rest of his life he sought with the greatest enthusiasm to win to life those by whom he had been devoted to death. He had formerly taught Theology at Lyons, not without commendation. On his return from the Military Mission, when he had turned aside to Avignon, and, making use of his opportunity, had retired into the Novitiate, in [v] almost the very beginning of his spiritual Exercises, he was called away to the contemplation of paradise, as we believe, on the 19th day of November, in the year 1622.
Besides a Letter to R. P. General Commander from Port Royal, and An Account of the Expedition of the English against Canada, Father Biard wrote A Book Advocating the authority of the Pontiff against Martinet, a minister. In French, also, he published separately An Account of New France and of the journey thither of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. Lyons, by L. Muguet, 1616, in 12mo."—[O'Callaghan.]
[vii] Tabvla Rervm.
| Pag. | |
| SOCIETAS Jesu, in Canadam, seu Novam Franciam inducta | 5 |
| II Initium Canadicæ Missionis, & primi fructus | 7 |
| III Domicilia Societatis & Missiones in Nova Francia | 18 |
| IV Missio Canadensis ab Anglis proturbata | 25 |
| V Unus è Societate interficitur; alii Canada ejiciuntur | 27 |
| VI Missiones Societatis Jesu in America septentrionali, Anno 1710 | 37 |