Michel Baudouin

Michel Baudouin (Baudoin), (16 March 1691 – 1768), a Jesuit missionary, was born at Quebec and was the brother of Gervais Baudoin and son of Gervais Baudouin.

Michel began his Jesuit noviciate at Bordeaux, France in 1713 and previous to that had completed his college and philosophy studies, probably in Canada. By 1715 he was teaching and was ordained a priest in 1725. In 1728 he was posted to the missions in Louisiana.

In Louisiana, Baudouin was assigned to the Choctaw Mission, where he remained for eighteen years. From 1749 until 1763, he was Superior-General of the Louisiana mission. At that time the expulsion of the Jesuits was taking place in that area but the priest was allowed to remain. He retired and died in New Orleans. According to sources, he was a dedicated priest and gentle man who served his country, his faith, and the people to whom he ministered.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Michel Baudouin — Italian missionary, born in Quebec, Canada, 8 March, 1692, entered the Society of Jesus in France at the age of twenty-one, arrived in Louisiana (on his return to America) in 1728; d. at New Orleans in, or after, 1768. Shortly after his arrival in Louisiana, he was sent to the Choctaw Mission, where he labored for eighteen years. When he was on the eve of deriving some fruit from his labors, he was recalled by his superior to New Orleans, owing to the disturbances excited by the English among the Indians and the dangers to which he was exposed. He was Superior-General of the Louisiana mission from 1749 until the expulsion of the Jesuits from that colony in 1763. When that untoward event took place, Father Baudouin was not banished from the country as his fellow Jesuits were, but with a pension of three or four hundred francs was allowed to remain in the colony, a planter having offered the aged priest a home on his estate.

Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, Index Vol. LXXII, 78, where full references are given; Kip, early Jesuit Missions in North America (London, 1847), II.

External links

• O’Neill, C. E. (1974). "Baudouin, Michel". In Halpenny, Francess G. (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. III (1741–1770) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
• Spillane, Edward Peter (1907). "Michel Baudouin". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Michel Baudouin". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.