Jacques Marquette, S.J., 1637-1675

by Joseph P. Donnelly, W.C. Windham (Foreword)

Dust jacket "Excepting the Jesuit martyrs of North America, Saints Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brebeuf, and their companions, no seventeeth-century Jesuit missionary's name is so well-known in the United States as that of Father Jacques Marquette. Though he has been honored by having his name attached to cities, rivers, business firms, colleges, universities, and high schools, up to the present no solidly scholarly biography of Father Marquette has been published in any language. This biography is the result of careful, painstaking investigation into every phase of Father Marquette's brief life of a few days less than thirty-eight years, 1637-1675. For the first time, the reader may learn the accurate details of Marquette's ancestry, his education, the early years of his Jesuit life in France, and the carefully documented history of his missionary career in New France. From this volume emerges a vivid, active, vigorous Jacques Marquette who dearly loved and profoundly understood the Indian as few other missionaries had. Also, the biography unhesitatingly addresses itself to the several controversies which have arisen in recent years regarding the subject. Was Marquette the discoverer of the Mississippi River? Can it be held that Jacques Marquette was not a priest? If he was, where, when, and by whom was he ordained? Did Marquette write the journal of the voyage down the Mississippi in the summer of 1673 or was that journal the work of Father Claude Dablon? This book meets a need to know the true Father Jacques Marquette, appearing as it does, during the five years (1968-1973) dedicated to celebrating the tercentenary of Marquette's presence in America...."

395 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1968

About the author

Fr. Joseph P. Donnelly, SJ

Reviews

[Gaston G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

a pretty amazing story of one of the early missionaries to northern Michigan. Pere Jacques Marquette was a very devout Jesuit. He seemed to truly jave the welfare of the indians at heart. He explored most of the Mississippi with Louis Jolliet. He contacted a desease, the author in consult with physicians, believes that it was typhoid fever while on that trip. He recovered enough to establish a mission withthe Illinois, south by about 40 of the whre Chicago is situated. He died just short of his 28th birthday. I found this book quite inspirational. Pere Marquette was dedicated to his commitment to bring the natives to the knowledge of God.