St. François de Laval

St. François de Laval was born in 1623 into a noble family of France and died on 6 May 1708 at Quebec, in New France. Ordained a priest and marked from youth by devotion and a longing for the missions, he was sent across the sea to Canada and in 1658 became the first bishop of the vast, struggling colony, an office he would fill for decades as the founder and organizer of the Catholic Church in that new land.

A tireless and austere shepherd, he traveled his immense diocese, founded the Seminary of Quebec — the seed of the later Laval University — to form a native clergy, established parishes, and cared for the French settlers and the native peoples alike. He is especially remembered for his courageous stand against the trade in brandy that was ruining the indigenous nations, defending them even against powerful interests. Venerated as the father of the Church in Canada, he was canonized in 2014, and his memory is kept on 6 May.