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Michael Karhaienton Jacobs, S.J. was born in Kahnawà:ke May 11, 1902 to Ann Jacobs and Joseph Jacobs, a steel-worker who specialized in bridges. He was baptized several days later by Reverend William Forbes at the Church of the Saint-François-Xavier Mission—the same reverend and church that would host his ordination 32 years later. Father Jacobs’ family had been registered members of the Saint-François-Xavier Mission since 1715, and are descendants of Big Chief Te-wa-te-ron-hio-ko-aga (Piercing the Clouds).

Father Jacobs was initially one of eleven children, though only six siblings survived beyond childhood: brothers Thomas, Angus, and Frank (all former ironworkers in New York), and sisters Cecilia, Lottie, and Mary. Growing up between Kahnawà:ke and Lachine—an arrangement necessary to Jacobs’ father’s bridge work—Father Jacobs attended public school where he became fluent in English and Kanien’kéha. At 16 years old, after expressing interest in St. Isaac Joques (patron saint of Christian Iroquois Indians), he was sent by Joseph Gras, S.J. to study at Sacred Heart College in Sudbury, Ontario, over 500 kilometres from his home in Kahnawà:ke.

During his final year at Sacred Heart, Father Jacobs decided to enter the Society of Jesus. On August 14, 1922, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Sault-au-Récollet, Quebec, and became the first member of the Mohawk Nation to join the Society of Jesus. From 1923 to 1926, he studied Rhetoric at Sault-au-Récollet. In 1926 and until 1929, he pursued philosophy at Collège de l’Immaculaée-Conception; from 1929 to 1931, he taught at Seminaire Gaspé, to return to Collège de l’Immaculaée-Conception in 1931 to study theology until 1935. In 1934, Father Jacobs was ordained by Reverend William Forbes, now Archbishop of Ottawa, in his childhood church of Saint-François-Xavier. The event was widely attended and publicized, and attracted numerous Kahnawà:ke community members as well as fellow Jesuits. Father Jacobs’ tertianship, which followed the end of his theology studies, took place in Chicoutimi, Quebec, from 1934 to 1936.

In 1937, after the completion of his tertianship, he began preaching to and teaching fellow Kahnawà:ke community members in Kanien’kéha. The following year, in 1938, he was relocated to the St. Regis-Ahkwesáhsne community at the Quebec/Ontario/New York border to serve as pastor for St. John Francis Regis Church—a position which he filled for 27 years. Due to the unique territorial context of the community, Father Jacobs claimed to serve in two nations (the United States and Canada), two Jesuit Provinces, and three dioceses (Valleyfield, Quebec; Alexandria, Ontario; and Ogdensburg, New York).

Over the course of his long career at St. Regis, Father Jacobs maintained an active parish life. He took part in many of the events at the parish activities center at Hogansburg (on the American side of the community). His firm belief that sports were at the heart of the community’s youth compelled him to put great emphasis on athletic programs, including working to revive lacrosse at St. Regis. His particular interest in Saint Kateri Tekakwitha led to his developing a Kateri Hall at his parish, which was host to ongoing educational opportunities like performances and festivals. He is also said to have encouraged Kanien’kehá:ka construction workers to build improved homes for their own families. His devotion to education in St. Regis prompted a relationship with the Sisters of Saint Anne, who he invited to St. Regis to teach from the years 1942 to 1973.

During his early years in the Society of Jesus, in the mid-1930s, Father Jacobs had spent summers serving as assistant director of the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs located in Auriesville, New York. The National Shrine continued to have a strong relationship with St. Regis throughout Father Jacobs’ career. In 1972, he received the Tekakwitha Award at the National Shrine’s Coliseum, accompanied by hundreds of Kanien’kehá:ka community members from St. Regis and Kahnawà:ke.

In 1972, Father Jacobs’ Golden Jubilee was celebrated by a widely attended ceremony at St. Regis Mission and the Kateri Tekakwitha Center, officiated by Bishop Stanislas Brzana of Ogdensburg, New York, Bishop Guy Belanger of Valleyfield, Quebec, and Bishop Adolph Proulx of Alexandria, Ontario (representing all three of Fr. Jacobs’ dioceses), marking fifty years in the Society of Jesus.
In 1965, he Jacobs assumed the role of assistant pastor at St. Regis with Francis Arsenault, S.J. taking his place as head pastor. He maintained this position until his health began to decline in 1982, at which point he moved to the Jesuit Province Infirmary in St. Jerome, Quebec. Father Jacobs died there six years later on September 8, 1988.

Fils de Louis Huguet-Latour et de Claire Trudeau (Truteau), Louis-Adolphe Huguet-Latour est né le 31 décembre 1812. Il débute son cours classique au Collège de Montréal en 1833, puis quitte brièvement Montréal pour continuer ses études au Collège de Québec, en 1839.

En 1847, il est nommé notaire, métier qu’il pratique jusqu’en 1869. Il est un membre très actif de plusieurs sociétés culturelles, dont, entre autres, la Société de tempérance, la Société d’horticulture de Montréal ainsi que la Société historique de Montréal, pour laquelle il est le premier bibliothécaire.

Il est l'auteur de l'Annuaire de Ville-Marie : origines, utilité et progrès des institutions catholiques à Montréal, dont une première édition est publiée en 1863.

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.

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.