THURY, LOUIS-PIERRE (1644-1699)

THURY, LOUIS-PIERRE, Catholic priest and Recollet missionary based at Miramichi, 1684-87; b. Normandy, France, c1644; ordained 1677; d. Chibouctou (Halifax), 3 Jun 1699.

Louis-Pierre Thury came to Canada around 1675 and served as a missionary for several years along the St Lawrence River. In 1684 he was selected by Bishop Laval to conduct a new mission in Acadia. After he explored the territory between the Gaspé and Port Royal he stated that the Miramichi, where Richard Denys had offered to supply the necessary land, would be an appropriate mission site. The mission was intended to serve both the French and the Indians and to provide religious instruction to the latter. Thury also planned to have the Indians clear land and plant Indian corn. The mission was attempted, but it was a financial failure. None of its more ambitious goals were achieved, but it may have been of some importance in exposing the Micmac population to Catholicism.

In 1687 Thury was sent to what is now the state of Maine, where he played a controversial part in the French-English conflict. In 1698 he was made vicar-general to the bishop of Quebec and superior of the missions in Acadia. He developed an ambitious plan to create a large Micmac settlement in Nova Scotia but died before this could be implemented.