Allouez was born in
Saint-Didier-en-Velay in the
département of
Haute-Loire in south-central
France. In 1639, he graduated from the College of Le Puy, and became a Jesuit novice in
Toulouse, France. In 1655, he was ordained a priest of the
Roman Catholic Church. Allouez arrived in Quebec in 1658 and immediately began a study of the
Wyandot and
Anishinaabe languages to prepare himself for work as a missionary among the
American Indian tribes along the
St. Lawrence River. In 1660 he became the superior of the mission at
Trois-Rivières, Quebec. His stay there lasted until 1663 when he was named
vicar general of a part of the
diocese of Quebec that is now the central region of the United States. This appointment was made by Bishop
François de Laval, the first
bishop of New France. From 1665 through 1669 Allouez made a missionary tour of the western missions. In 1667 he visited the village of the
Nipissing Indians who had fled there during the
Iroquois onslaught of 1649-50 and celebrated the first mass beside the Nipigon River May 29, 1667. He went back to Quebec in search of assistants, and immediately returned to the missions. On December 3, 1669, Allouez said the first Mass in
Oconto, Wisconsin. He served as a missionary to the
Potawatomi. The Menominee began participating in the fur trade network and converting to Christianity. The next year he was with the
Meskwaki, establishing St. Mark's Mission, and founding the mission of St. James among the
Miami and
Mascouten peoples, finally returning to
Green Bay later that year. Because of his fluency in native languages and the prestige in which he was held by the Indian nations, in
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, he was a principal speaker at the ceremony that formally declared the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River valley as territory of the King of France. This became his base until word arrived of the death of
Jacques Marquette, and Allouez was assigned to continue Marquette's work among the
Illinois. In February 1676, on his way to Lake Michigan, his companions rigged a sail on the canoe to sail over the ice. By March he was at
Whitefish Bay and reached
Kaskaskia by the end of the month. He continued Marquette's evangelizing of the Indians until his death in 1689, near what is today
Niles, Michigan just north of
South Bend, Indiana. He is buried in Niles. A good portion of Father Allouez's written work from the time has been preserved. It provides insight into the missions of the time and provides a record that is extensive and important of the Catholic Church in mid-America. It also contains the first documented accounts of the
Illinois Indians. He is reputed to have baptized around 10,000 neophytes. == Legacy ==