OVER 500 YEARS

Birth of the Province of Canada.

Visit of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Arturo Sosa, who officially announces the creation of the new province of Canada, during a celebration at the Gésu in Montreal.

First joint meeting of directors of all Jesuit works in Canada.

Creation of the preparatory committee for the new province.

The first common catalogue of works and communities is published.

A second community discernment deepens the desire for a new province.

At the joint meeting of the councils of the two provinces, a prayerful review of the lights and shadows of the story of the Society of Jesus in Canada gives rise to the desire to form a single bilingual province for Canada.

The Jesuits begin an entire year of celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the presence of the order in Canada.

The archives of the two Canadian Jesuit provinces unite in Montreal to form a single entity: the Jesuit Archives in Canada.

Eight novices enter a new common and bilingual novitiate, serving the French and English speaking provinces.

The Province of Upper Canada officially changes its name to Jesuits in English Canada.

Joint meetings of the councils of Canada’s two provincial superiors begin, at the rate of two meetings a year, to explore closer apostolic collaboration between the two provinces.

Cooperation of the two Jesuit provinces of Canada at WYD in Toronto: The Ania program: Friends in the Lord, offered to youth served by apostolates of the Society of Jesus throughout the world.

Father Martin Royackers is murdered in his parish in Annotto Bay, Jamaica, where he worked to support poor farmers in search of suitable land.

The novices of Upper Canada move to the Interprovincial Novitiate in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The first Canadian Jesuit arrives in Jamaica to join this mission from the province of New England.

The Province of French Canada is born of the reunification of the provinces of Quebec and Montreal.

The first Canadian Jesuit arrives in Zambia to join this mission.

Arrival of Pedro Arrupe. This is the first visit of a General to Canada.

Father Pedro Arrupe is elected Superior General of the Jesuits.

The province of Lower Canada is divided into two sections: Quebec and Montreal.

The Jesuits open in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the first retreat house, Villa Manrèse.

Return of the Jesuits to northern Haiti, in Quartier-Morin.

The Holy See gives the Jesuits in Canada charge of the Interdiocesan Seminary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The Province of Upper Canada accepts its first overseas mission to Darjeeling, India, which eventually will expand to include Bhutan and Nepal.

Kateri Tekakwitha is declared Venerable.

Pope Pius XII proclaims the Canadian Martyrs second bosses of Canada.

The Vice Province of Upper Canada becomes the province of Upper Canada.

Priestly ordination, by Most Reverend Joseph-Guillaume Forbes, Archbishop of Ottawa, of the first Iroquois Jesuit, Father Michel Karhaienton Jacobs at the Mission Saint-François-Xavier in Kahnawake.

Founding of Regis College, the Jesuit Seminary in Toronto.

Canonization of the Canadian Martyrs.

Opening of the Shrine of the Canadian Martyrs in Midland, Ontario.

Beatification of Fathers Brébeuf, Jogues and their six companions.

Division of the Province of Canada into the Vice Province of Upper Canada and the Province of Lower Canada.

Foundation of the first Canadian Jesuit Mission overseas in Suchow, China.

Seventeen English-Canadian novices from Montreal move to Guelph, Ontario, to found the Novitiate Saint-Stanislas.

The Mission of Canada becomes the Province of Canada. The new Province of Canada supports the Alaska Mission.

The Jesuits are recalled in the mission Saint-François-Xavier, Kahnawake.

The Mission of Canada separates from the English province to become independent.

Official opening of the Scholasticate of the Immaculate Conception.

Father Henri Hudon becomes the first superior of the Independent Mission of Canada.

The Mission of Canada is separated from New York and is attached to the English province.

Blessing of the Gesù Church, Chapel of Collège Sainte-Marie and public chapel.

The New York-Canada mission is attached to the new Province of Champagne in France.

Fathers John Holzer and Gasper Matoga set up a mission in Guelph, Ontario, to serve the Germans there and other settlers.

Official opening of Collège Sainte-Marie.

Entry of the first Canadian-English Jesuit, Richard Baxter, to the novitiate of Montreal.

Establishment of the Jesuit Mission Headquarters in Wikwemikong, Ontario, in the Manitoulin Islands. This is the oldest unbroken mission in Canada to date.

A decree of Father General detaches the mission of Upper Canada from that of Lower Canada. Father Chazelle becomes Superior of Upper Canada and Father Martin, Superior of Lower Canada.

Jean-Pierre Choné arrives in Wikwemikong, Ontario, to establish a Jesuit mission there.

Father Dominique du Ranquet in Walpole Island, near Windsor, becomes the first of the new Jesuits missioned to the First Nations.

Entry to the novitiate of the second candidate: Mr. Henri Hudon, from College Saint-Anne de la Pocatière.

Augustin Régnier, a graduate of Saint-Hyacinthe College, is the first novice to join the new Society in Canada.

Arrival at Laprairie des Fathers Pierre Chazelle, Félix Martin, Paul Luiset, Dominique du Ranquet, Joseph Hanipaux, Remi Tellier as well as the brother brothers Joseph Jennesseaux, Pierre Tupin and Emmanuel Brenans.

Bishop Ignace Bourget, bishop of Montreal, writes a memoir that will be quickly titled “The Call to the Jesuits.”

Father Pierre Chazelle arrives in Canada to preach the annual retreat of the priests of the diocese of Montreal and also to test the waters as to the eventual return of the Jesuits to Canada.

The Jesuit order is restored by Pope Pius VII, which will enable them to return to Lower Canada.

Father Jean-Joseph Casot dies in Quebec at the age of 72. With him, the Society of Jesus dies in Canada.

Death in Sandwich (now Windsor, Ontario) of Father Pierre Potier, the last Jesuit of the early Society still working with the First Nations.

In concert with Governor Carleton, the bishop of Quebec, Jean-Olivier Briand, refuses to obey the order of Pope Clement XIV to suppress the Society of Jesus. This is how the Jesuits of Canada were able to keep their name and their property.

Clement XIV signs the brief Dominicus ac Redemptor which, from August 16th, suppresses the Society of Jesus everywhere in the world, as a result of pressure exerted on Rome by the governments of Portugal, Spain and Spain. France.

Priestly ordination of Brother Jean-Joseph Casot, who will be the last Jesuit of the Old Regime present in Canada.

King Louis XV decrees the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Kingdom of France.

Signature of the Treaty of Paris, which ceded Canada to Great Britain.

Death to Kahnawake of Kateri Tekakwitha.

The Iroquois mission, Kentaké, is relocated and renamed Kahnawake.

Father Charles Albanel reaches Hudson Bay by travelling through the Saguenay region.

Establishment of the Kentake Mission: The Jesuit Pierre Raffeix brings together a group of Native Americans from different nations and founds the Saint-François- Xavier mission in the seigneury of La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine.

The first Jesuit born in Canada, Noël Juchereau de la Ferte, a medical graduate, enters the novitiate of the Jesuits in Paris as a brother.

ounding of the Séminaire de Québec, which at this time includes only the Major Seminary.

Father Ragueneau takes refuge with the surviving Huron on Ahoendoe Island where he will stay for a year before returning to Quebec.

Death of Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant at Saint- Ignace (Taenhatentaron).

The Jesuit Jean de Quen discovers Lac Saint-Jean.

First Mass celebrated at Ville-Marie by Father Barthélémy Vimont, the day of the founding of the city.

The Jesuit Paul LeJeune founded the Saguenay mission in Tadoussac.

Beginning of the construction of Sainte-Marie-au-pays-des-Hurons.

With the return of the colony in French hands, this year marks the beginning of the third Jesuit missionary enterprise in New France.

The Jesuits are expelled from the territory when the English temporarily occupy New France.

Jean de Brébeuf and four companions leave Dieppe for Quebec City with the goal of restoring a Jesuit mission in Canada.

Canonization of Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier by Pope Gregory XV.

Father Biard begins writing the Jesuit Relations.

Arrival at Port-Royal of Fathers Pierre Biard and Ennemond Massé.

Pierre Biard and Ennemond Massé set sail from Dieppe, France, to Port-Royal, Acadia.

Beatification by Pope Paul V of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier.

Pope Paul III approves the Spiritual Exercises.

Saint Ignatius and his companions make their vows as Jesuits at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.

Pope Paul III approves the Society of Jesus through the bull Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae.

Saint Francis Xavier leaves Rome for India.

Pope Paul III gives his oral approval to the project of founding a religious order. Digitus Dei Est Hic. (“The finger of God is here”)

Ordination in Venice of St. Ignatius and those companions who are not yet priests.

Paschase Broët, Jean Codure and Claude Jay join the group of first companions.

First vows in Montmartre by Ignatius Loyola, François Xavier, Pierre

Iñigo de Loyola is injured in Pamplona.