The Jesuit Relations

Cover of the Jesuit Relations for 1662–1663

The Jesuit Relations, also known as Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France (Relation de ce qui s'est passé [...]), are chronicles of the Jesuit missions in New France. The works were written annually and printed beginning in 1632 and ending in 1673.

Originally written in French, Latin, and Italian, The Jesuit Relations were reports from Jesuit missionaries in the field to their superiors to update them as to the missionaries' progress in the conversion of various Indigenous North American tribes, including the Huron, Montagnais, Miꞌkmaq, Mohawk, and Algonquins.[1] Constructed as narratives, the original reports of the Jesuit missionaries were subsequently transcribed and altered several times before their publication, first by the Jesuit overseer in New France and then by the Jesuit governing body in France. The Jesuits began to shape the Relations for the general public, in order to attract new settlers[2] to the colony and to raise enough capital and political support to continue the missions in New France.[1][3] Overall, these texts serve as microcosms of Indigenous-European relations in North America.[4]

The Relations are integral to the historiography of the Jesuits of New France.[5] Recent scholarship illuminates how these documents may have been re-circulated back to Jesuit colleges in New France, which changes how one can understand their ethnographic and knowledge-producing value.[6]

  1. ^ a b Richter, Daniel K. (1985). "Iroquois versus Iroquois: Jesuit Missions and Christianity in Village Politics, 1642-1686". Ethnohistory. 32 (1): 1–16. doi:10.2307/482090. JSTOR 482090.
  2. ^ Slukan-Altić, Mirela (2022). Encounters in the New World: Jesuit cartography of the Americas. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-226-79105-0.
  3. ^ True, Micah (2015). Masters and Students: Jesuit Mission Ethnography in Seventeenth-Century New France. Montréal: McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 9–10, 171–72. ISBN 978-0-7735-4512-0.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ronda1972 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Codignola, Luca (2020-08-14), "The Historiography on the Jesuits of New France", Jesuit Historiography Online, Brill, retrieved 2023-05-24
  6. ^ True, Micah (March 2012). "Travel Writing, Ethnography, and the Colony-Centric Voyage of the Jesuit Relations from New France". American Review of Canadian Studies. 42 (1): 102–116. doi:10.1080/02722011.2012.649922. S2CID 144546729.