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Manitoulin Island in present-day Northern Ontario was first inhabited by the Odawa, and then by the Ojibway and the Pottawatomi. Joseph Antoine Poncet was the first Jesuit priest to step foot on the island, in 1648. However, the Jesuit presence in the region remained insignificant during the following years and ceased completely after the Society of Jesus was abolished by the pope in 1773.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, the British Crown wished to develop the area as a settlement for all First Nations people, in order to free land for ensuing colonial encroachment. The 1836 Manitoulin Treaty between the British Crown and the Odawa and Ojibway stipulated that the area would be the property of all First Nations wishing to reside there. However, few Indigenous communities were ready to abandon their ancestral lands and move to Manitoulin Island. Faced with the failure of the project and desiring to gain access to the lands of the island, the Crown sought to conclude another treaty with the communities. The Marshall Treaty of 1862 targeted the surrender of these lands. Wiikwemkoong refused to sign it and began to oppose to any treaty with the British Crown, officially making Wiikwemkoong an unceded territory. Negotiations between the Crown and the First Nations were sometimes made with the support of Jesuit priests who returned to the region in 1844.

Jean-Pierre Chôné was the first Jesuit to come back to Manitoulin Island. A small catholic settlement, the Mission Sainte-Croix, was already established at Wiikwemkoong when he arrived. Founded in 1837 by Jean-Baptiste Proulx, a secular priest, the mission served an extensive Indigenous population. The mission was ceded to the Jesuits in July 1844. Jean-Pierre Chôné became the first Jesuit Superior of the Holy Cross Mission. In 1847, he was replaced by Nicolas Point, S.J., who remained Superior until 1854.

The Jesuits in present-day Canada were then under the authority of the Jesuit Province of France. During the first years, the Holy Cross Mission was administered by at least two Jesuit Fathers. One of them would stay in Wiikwemkoong, while the other travelled to other mission points of the region. Wiikwemkoong therefore became the focal point of Jesuit missions in Northern Ontario. As the missions developed, Jesuit missionaries in other Northern territories such as Gore Bay, Batchewana, Little Current, Killarney, Spanish River and Lake Huron North Shore continued to report formally and informally to the Holy Cross Mission at Wiikwemkoong. From that central point, the Jesuits managed schools and infrastructures and were active in the communities’ daily lives. In 1994, the Holy Cross Mission celebrated its 150th anniversary.

The church of the Holy Cross Mission is the oldest Catholic church in Northern Ontario. Construction began in the late 1840s and was mainly accomplished by Anishinaabe men, women, and children. The individuals who built it were mostly the Bemanakinong, Wakegijig, Gabow and Kenogameg (Kinoshameg) First Nations families. In 1954, the Holy Cross Church was almost destroyed by a fire, but was gradually rebuilt and is still standing today. Over time, the number of Jesuits in Wiikwemkoong decreased until a single Jesuit priest ensured the presence of the Society of Jesus in the community.

James Howitt, S.J. was born December 5, 1890 in Guelph, Ontario. In August of 1911, he entered the Society of Jesus at Sault-au-Récollet in Montreal and proceeded to study in Poughkeepsie, New York and teach at Loyola High School in Montreal from 1918 to 1922. He was ordained in August of 1925.

Father Howitt spent all of his spiritual career in Northern Ontario, beginning at Wikwemikong in 1926 where he learned Ojibway before proceeding to Thunder Bay. In 1929 he became pastor at St. Sebastian’s Parish in Spanish, Ontario and at St. Raphael’s in Sagamok; he then proceeded on to work briefly as Superior and principal of the residential school in Spanish, Ontario from 1931 to 1932. Later that year, he was transferred to Nipigon on Lake Superior, from which he travelled to other mission stations; five years later, he returned to Spanish to work as Superior, principal, and parish priest.

In 1942, he relocated to Saint Mary’s Parish at Cape Croker where he was responsible for a number of neighbouring parishes. His last assignment, beginning in 1945, was at West Bay on Manitoulin Island where he was responsible for six stations. In 1951, a brain tumour cut short his assignment, and he returned to the infirmary at the Jesuit novitiate in Guelph where he passed away.