The location of the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier at the Sault Saint Louis from July 1676 to 1689

In Father Claude Chauchetière’s recital of the life of Catherine Tekakwitha, Catherine Tekakwitha would leave her lodge and went to the cemetery that was near (a walking distance of less than five minutes). This cemetery would be where she was buried Thursday April 18, 1680 to autumn 1684. At present, the burial place of Catherine Tekakwitha is marked with a cenotaph, which is across La Paroisse Sainte-Catherine d’Alexandrie at 5365 boulevard Marie-Victorin, Ville Sainte-Catherine.

Father Chauchetière had painted an oil painting of a very likeness of Catherine Tekakwitha. In this portrait, the shoreline with the Chapel is the same as another drawing he had done of the Chapel in 1685.

On a present map of the south shore; that is, east to her burial site that this shoreline is still seen. The Chapel of the Sault stood next to the shore of the river and presently would be at rue Brébeuf and boulevard Marie-Victorin, in the city of Ville Sainte-Catherine.

Father Chauchetière wrote in the “Annual Narrative of the Mission of the Sault from its Foundation” in 1676, the Mission at Laprairie de la Magdeleine was displaced in 1676 to settle one and a quarter league, or 3¾ miles (6 kilometres) higher or west. This they would call the, “Sault (rapids) Saint Louis.” The distance from the Mission of the Sault from rue Brébeuf and boulevard Marie-Victorin, to the Church of La Nativité de la Sainte-Vierge at 155 chemin Saint-Jean in the city of Ville Laprairie, is about a distance of a league and a quarter (3¾ miles, or 6 kilometres). There is a plaque in the Church of La Nativité de la Sainte-Vierge that the first Chapel was built in 1667 by Father Pierre Raffeix, S.J.

In 1693, Father Chauchetière left the Mission for Villemarie (Montréal). In a letter in 1694, the Father wrote that he was Proto-regent of the Collège de Villemarie and taught mathematics at the college. Thus, he was familiar to distance when he wrote of the displacement of the Mission at Lapraire to the Sault, and also after her death he was also the priest for the French at the Parish at Laprairie. There was a road that went along the side of the river from the Sault to Laprairie.

On August 19, 1683, the Chapel at the Sault fell during a storm. This shoreline was steep and concave and is still present where the Chapel stood. This steepness and concave shoreline had contributed to having a whirlwind to be form that raised the Chapel to fall to the ground. The Chapel was sixty French feet (about sixty-three feet) in length by twenty-five French feet (about twenty-six feet) in width.

The border of the Mission was most probably Le Portage River. In 1682, Father Chauchetière wrote that there were sixty lodges, or a hundred twenty to a hundred fifty families, that at least two families were in a lodge. In the beginning of 1685, they finished the pentagonal (five-sided) palisade around the village, from Father Chauchetière’s annual narration of the Sault.

The chapel in 1684

In the Narration of the Sault in 1684, they rebuilt the Chapel and they threw the logs into a little brook passing next to the place where were the village and the Chapel. This was Le Portage River, or Saint Régis River. Thus, the chapel was rebuilt on the side of the du Portage River, but on the side of the cemetery and having then the Chapel next to the cemetery.

The location of the Mission in Kahnawakon (1689 to 1695) was on the side of Grist-Mill River, and presently is in the City of Ville Sainte-Catherine. The maps previous to 1954, the Mission was located on the left side of Grist-Mill River. Presently the river is drained, because of the construction of the Saint Laurent Seaway that was opened in 1959. Although, the entrance of Grist-Mill River is still seen on present maps. The “Bassin de Virage” was land-filled before the Saint Laurent Seaway was built and the “Voie Maritime du St-Laurent” appeared only after 1959.

The location of the Mission in Kanatawenke (1695 to 1716) was on the right side of La Suzanne River, and presently is in Kahnawake First Nation Territory. It is there where the Father Jacques de Lamberville was buried in 1711 and Father Jacques Bruyas was buried in 1712. The entrance of La Suzanne River before 1954 is still seen on present maps. In 1959, the Saint Laurent Seaway was completed and the land areas lined on the map were not present before 1954.

The area of the riverside where Catherine Tekakwitha was buried from 1680 to 1684, and the location of the Sault Saint Louis were not disturbed during the construction of the Saint Laurent Seaway between 1954 to 1959.

Burial place of Catherine Tekakwitha (Thursday April 18, 1680 to autumn 1684)

1.Mission in Laprairie de la Magdeleine (1667 to July 1676)

2.Mission in the Sault Saint Francis Xavier, or Sault Saint Louis (July 1676 to 1689)

3.Mission in Kahnawakon “In the Rapids” (1689 to 1695)

4.Mission in Kanatawenke “Near the Rapids” (1695 to 1716)

5.In 1716 to the present, Mission in Kahnawake “On the Rapids”

Father Chauchetière had painted
the (1696) portrait of
Blessed Catherine Tekakwitha
from the location on the above
picture, and having the church in
the background, which
represents the Chapel of 1678.