This appeared to him a clear call to refuse the offer of the episcopate, which was not among the Gentiles.
At this same time his spiritual director, Père de Coudreu, the general of the Oratorians, and the holy St. Vincent de Paul, were also thinking out Olier's decision for him. On this same day, then, Père de Coudreu's decision that he ought to renounce the episcopacy coming to Olier, he believed that it was his mission to remain a simple priest, and go at once to Canada to be allied to the Gentiles there. With difficulty he is restrained by his director. He is all aglow with zeal, he prays God, as his autobiographical memoirs tell, "to send me to Montreal in Canada, where they should build the first chapel, under the title of the Ever-Blessed Virgin and a Christian town under the name of Ville Marie, which is a work of marvelous importance."
Olier retired towards the end of 1641, to the Village of Vaugiraud, where he surrounded himself with some young ecclesiastics who placed themselves under his direction. [40] Thus he founded the Seminary of St. Sulpice, the early fruits of which were directed towards Canada. Thus we shall see, that through his sons, he became the lumen ad revelationem of his prayers. M. Olier is therefore to be considered one of the founders of Canada as he is already one of the first three associates who are to form the new company of Notre Dame de Montréal.
M. Fancamp must shortly have been introduced to Olier, for we learn that conjointly with M. Olier he sent out to Quebec in 1640, twenty tons of provisions and tools, begging the Jesuit superior of the mission to hold them in reserve for the reinforcement they proposed to send to Montreal the year following before commencing the projected establishment.
It can but be said that the concession of the Great Company was liberal and well meaning. Indeed the same day of the concession, December 17, 1640, it engaged itself to transport on its own vessels at its own expense, thirty men chosen by the Messieurs de Montréal as well as thirty tons of provisions destined for their sustenance; also to write to M. de Montmagny to give them two sites, one at the port of Quebec and the other at Three Rivers, where they might house their provisions in safety.
Great preparations were now the order of the day. Exhaustive plans were prepared for the gradual development of the Colony of Montreal, year by year ahead. Rarely has any settlement ever been thought out so completely. It had the experience of the Colony of Quebec to fall back upon. Quebec had its three organized institutions, its clergy residence, its hospital and its school for the young savages. Ville Marie should have its similar ones. In the place of the Jesuits it should have a community of resident secular priests. This was not to oust the Jesuits, who consented to this from the beginning, as they wished to follow their vocation to evangelize the country far and wide, the constitution of their order not designing them to be parish priests. In the meantime they undertook to look after the spiritual needs of the young settlement from their headquarters at Quebec. The plan for the personnel to take charge of the other institutions had not yet matured.
Documents, in the archives of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, at Paris, relating to this period, show the fervour of those now planning "by the goodness of God to see in a short time a new church arise which shall imitate the purity and the charity of the primitive church."
The Associates, being in the necessity of sending out their first consignment of men according to their agreement, it became necessary to choose a governor, dignified, brave and wise, and a good Christian, a man to command against the attacks of the fierce Iroquois and to build up the civil life of the community. How the choice fell upon Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, a gentleman of Champagne, must now be told. Here we follow Dollier de Casson and contemporary chroniclers. Paul de Chomedey, though still young, being commonly thought to be within his fortieth year, had followed the career of arms since his thirteenth year, and had given the first proofs of his courage in the war against the Dutch. Amid the dissipations of a soldier's life, Colonel de Maisonneuve had retained his probity and purity unsullied. He loved his profession, but he often desired to exercise it in some far-off country, where the gaieties and distractions in which he now found himself a solitary man should not be forced upon him, so that he might serve God more easily, and remain faithful to his high purposes. Thus he was in the world but not of it. De Chomedey had a sister to whom he was devoted, a member of the Congregation of Notre Dame at Troyes, that ancient birthplace of warriors, poets and saints, on the Seine. This good woman, they say, desired to partake of the romantic and apostolic life of the Ursulines Hospitalières at Quebec, as related by the Jesuits in their letters then being printed and circulated in France. Doubtless by her whole-souled enthusiasm she had already turned her brother's thoughts in the same direction of self-sacrifice.
In the dispositions, happening while visiting the house of a friend, to put his hand by chance upon a copy of these "Relations," in turning over the leaves he came across the name of Father Lalemant, the former superior of the Canadian missions, whom he knew to be now in Paris. The thought came to him that perhaps he might find congenial occupation in Canada. Thereupon visiting the good Jesuit, he opened his heart to him.
About this same time M. de la Dauversière called upon Father Lalemant and told him of the difficulty of the Associates in finding a suitable leader for their enterprise.