Northern Ontario Missions

When the Society of Jesus returned to North America in the 1840s, Jesuit missionaries set out to establish residences in northern Upper Canada, as Indigenous ministry and education were two of the primary reasons for their return to present-day Canada. Jesuit priests settled along the Kaministiquia River in 1848 and 1849, and established the Immaculate Conception Mission in what later became the Fort William First Nation Reserve. Missionaries subsequently built a school and an orphanage in 1860, along with a modest church that was rebuilt in 1900 after a fire destroyed the building.

The missionaries who were active in present-day Ontario reported to several Jesuit Provinces over the years, as the Society’s administration was reorganized. The Jesuit presence in the region was mainly organized around three central points: The Holy Cross Mission of Wiikwemkoong, the Immaculate Conception Mission of Fort William, and Sault Ste. Marie. Jesuit missionaries travelled long distances to establish and maintain missions located north of Lake Superior and were often responsible for several parishes at once. The territories and communities served by the Jesuit missionaries included the Lake Nipigon area, Fort Frances and Kenora, parishes and communities along the Canadian Pacific Railway, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg (formerly known as Pic River or Heron Bay mission), Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek (Gull Bay), the Mountain Road and Squaw Bay Missions on the Fort William First Nation territory, the Garden River First Nation, Sudbury, and South Bay on the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, among others. Missionaries were responsible for setting up schools, and for the thousands of Catholic parishioners situated across these vast territories. Over time, in part due to the lack of Jesuit priests, the number of Jesuits in Northern Ontario slowly decreased and most of the parishes were ceded to the dioceses. In January 2025, the Jesuits withdrew from the Diocese of Thunder Bay.