It Was Not, However, Until The Spring Of 1647 That The
Work Of Digging The Foundations Of The College Was Begun - The First
Stone Being Laid On The 12th June.
'The same day,' says the Journal
des Jesuites, 'was laid the first stone of the foundations of the
offices of the main-building of the Quebec house.
In 1648, we
completed the half of the large main-building, in 1649, our building
was completed as regards the exterior masonry and the roof; but the
interior had not yet been touched.' In July, 1650, the foundations of
the chapel were commenced, and on the 18th October, 1651, it was
sufficiently advanced to allow the pupils of the college to receive
therein Governor de Lauzon. 'The scholars,' says again the Journal
des Jesuites, 'received Monsieur the Governor in our new chapel,
latina oratione et versibus gallicis, &c., &c. The Indians
(scholars) danced, when mass was first celebrated in the chapel.' On
the 29th May, 1655, a great misfortune befell the good Fathers. The
brother known as Jean Liegeois was treacherously assassinated. He was
their business man; several times he had crossed over from Canada to
France in their interests; he was also their architect, and had
superintended the building of the residences at their various
missions, as well as the erection of the college. On the day in
question, while engaged in the fields near Sillery, seven or eight
Agniers (Iroquois) suddenly surrounded him, captured him without
resistance, and, put a bullet through his heart, and, adds the
Journal des Jesuites, one of them scalped him, while another
chopped off his head, which they loft upon the spot. On the following
day the Algonquins found his body and brought it to Sillery, whence it
was conveyed in a boat to Quebec, where it was exposed in the chapel,
and, on the 31st May, after the usual offices, 'it was interred at the
lower end of the chapel; that is to say, in one of the two sides where
the altar of the Congregation des Messieurs is now located.' To
understand these last words, it is necessary to explain that nearly
two years later, on the 14th February, 1657, Father Poncet founded
this congregation; and it was M. de Lauzon-Charny, Master of the Woods
and Forests of New France, son of Governor de Lauzon, who was elected
Prefect of the first members of the body to the number of twelve. This
same M. de Charny had married the daughter of M. Giffard, the first
Seigneur of Beauport; but his wife dying two years after that
marriage, M. de Charny passed over to France, where he entered holy
orders, subsequently returning to Canada with Mgr. de Laval, whose
grand vicar he became, as well as the first ecclesiastical dignitary,
inasmuch as he replaced him at the Conseil Souverain at the period of
the difficulties between the Bishop of Petrea and Governor de Mesy.
"But to return to the interments in the Jesuits' Chapel. The next
which took place was that of Father de Quen, who died on the 8th
October, 1659, of contagious fever brought into the colony by vessels
from beyond the seas. It was he, who, in 1647, discovered Lake St.
John, and, in 1653, celebrated the Mass at the Hotel Dieu, when the
Sister Marie de L'Incarnation embraced the religious profession.
Father de Quen was buried on the morning of the 9th praesente
corpore, dictae duae missae privatae, in summo altari, dum diceretur
officium. He was 59 years of age. The Journal des Jesuites
does not say that he was interred in the chapel, but it is easy to
infer the fact from the two private masses said in presence of
the body, and also because the entry of his burial does not appear in
the parish register. Moreover, it is also the opinion of Rev. Messrs.
Laverdiere and Casgrain, as published in the Journal des Jesuites.
On the 15th November, 1665, arrived at Quebec, coming from the
Richelieu River, a vessel bringing the body of Father Francois du
Peron, who died on the 10th at Fort St. Louis (Chambly). The body was
exposed in the Chapel of the Congregation, and 'on the 16th, after the
service at which the Marquis de Tracy assisted, it was interred in the
vault of the chapel towards the confessional on the side of the
street,' and Father le Mercier, who wrote the foregoing, adds that
'there remains room only for another body.'
"From the preceding, it appears that three interments took place in
the Jesuits' Chapel (the only ones mentioned in the Journal des
Jesuites), and it is probable that the place remaining for only
one more body was never filled. The remains of three bodies having
been found, it seems to me therefore reasonable to conclude that they
are those of Brother Liegeois and Fathers de Quen and du Peron. It is
true only two skulls have been recovered, but it must be remembered
that Brother Liegeois had his head chopped off and left upon the spot,
as remarks the text, so that it is easy to conjecture that the
Iroquois dragged his body further off, when it was found in a headless
condition and thus buried. With respect to the site of the chapel, the
text already cited relative to Father du Peron indicates sufficiently
that it was alongside the street; and a reference to the map of Quebec
in 1660 shows in fact the street skirting the Jesuits' property as it
does to-day. Further, the excavations which, at the request of Pere
Sachez, Dr. Larue and others, Hon. Mr. Joly, with a good will which
cannot be too highly praised, has ordered to be made, have already
laid bare the foundations of a well outlined building upon the very
site where tradition locates the chapel and where the bones have been
found.
"As it was stated at the time of the finding of the skeletons that one
of them was supposed to be that of a nun of the Hotel Dieu, Mr. Bedard
applied to the authorities of that institution for information on the
subject and received an answer from the records which conclusively
proves that the nun in question was buried in the vault of the
Jesuits' Church and not in their Chapel."
Though a considerable sum had been granted to foster Jesuit establishments
at Quebec by a young French nobleman, Rene de Rohault, son of the Marquis
de Gamache, as early as 1626, it was on the 18th March, 1637, only, that
the ground to build on, "twelve arpents of land, in the vicinity of Fort
St. Louis" were granted to the Jesuit Fathers.
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