Daily Inspirations

A humble missionary of Jesus Christ

This was the title that Father Nicolas Laverlochère gave himself. Nevertheless, the Oblate was a true giant of the apostolate while ministering to the Algonquians of James Bay. He was gifted with a strong build, a quick mind, a generous heart and uncommon energy, and it can be said that he was in reality the “founder” of the Oblate missions in that region. As early as 1845 he visited Abitibi Lake and Albany on the west bank of the Bay. The Amerindians soon called him “Mino-Tagossite”, one whom we like to hear. In spite of the painful paralysis that struck him at the age of thirty-nine, he still fulfilled a long and beautiful career in Timiskaming, where he died in 1884, at the age of seventy-three. In these brief stories, we can admire his great charity and the unremitting faith that saved his life on many occasions. (more…)