Jean-Baptiste Thibault (14 December 1810 – 4 April 1879) was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest and

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

noted for his role in negotiating on behalf of the

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

during the

Red River Rebellion The Red River Rebellion (), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by Métis leader Louis Riel and his f ...

of 1869–1870. He also established the first

mission in what would become

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, at Lac Sainte Anne in 1842.

Life

Thibault was born at Saint-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévy 14 December 1810, and studied at the seminary of Quebec. He set out for the Northwest and arrived at Saint-Boniface in June 1833, and began to study the Cree and Chippewa languages. The following September, he was ordained by Bishop Provencher, vicar general of the Northwest for the

Archdiocese of Quebec The Archdiocese of Québec (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest episcopal see in the New World north of Mexico and the primatial see of Canada. The Archdioce ...

.Dorge, Lionel. “Thibault, Jean-Baptiste", ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003
/ref> Thibault made his first missionary journey in 1842, riding horseback across the plains as far as the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

's Edmonton House. He performed baptism and weddings, an acquired a greater knowledge of the area. For the next ten years, he visited HBC outposts, and met with the Indians and Metis. In 1852, he returned to Saint-Boniface. In 1844, he founded the Lac Ste. Anne mission in Alberta. Thibault renamed the lake, previously called "Devil's Lake" in honor of

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

. In 1845 he was made Vicar-General of the Apostolic Vicariate of James Bay."Jean-Baptiste Thibault (December 14, 1810 - April 4, 1879)", Library and Archives Canada
/ref> Later in 1846, Thibault furthered his missionary work in travelling to the northern trading post of

Île-à-la-Crosse Île-à-la-Crosse () is a northern village in Division No. 18, northwestern Saskatchewan, and was the site of historic trading posts first established in 1778. Île-à-la-Crosse is the second oldest community in Saskatchewan, Canada, followin ...

where he noted that the Métis peoples could be easily converted to the Catholic faith. After petitioning the Bishop,

Joseph-Norbert Provencher Joseph-Norbert Provencher (February 12, 1787 – June 7, 1853) was a Canadian clergyman and missionary and one of the founders of the modern province of Manitoba. He was the first Bishop of Saint Boniface and was an important figure in the histo ...

, and gaining the approval of the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, George Simpson, Thibault was able to arrange for two priests from the superior Oblates of Canada to be sent to build a mission. This mission would be named as the Saint-Jean-Baptiste mission and was in operation from 1845 to 1898. Thibault was in Quebec in 1869. As he was respected by the Metis, the government asked him to accompany a group heading to the

Red River Colony The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assiniboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hudson's Bay ...

to negotiate a union with Canada. "A reserved and prudent man, Thibault was content to remain in the background" during the mission.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thibault, Jean-Baptiste 1810 births 1879 deaths Canadian Roman Catholic missionaries People of the Red River Rebellion Pre-Confederation Alberta people Settlers of Canada Roman Catholic missionaries in Canada