Raymond Breton, OP ( Baune, 3 September 1609 –

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

, 8 January 1679) was a French Dominican missionary and linguist among the Caribbean Indians, and in particular the

Garifuna The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and Amerindian ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and traditionally speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language. The Garifuna ...

(formerly known as Black Caribs to Europeans, and as ''Callinago'' amongst themselves).

Life

Breton entered the Order of St. Dominic at the age of seventeen and was sent (1627) to the priory of St. Jacques, at Paris, to finish his classical education and make his course of philosophy and theology. Having obtained his degree in theology, he sailed with three other Dominicans for the

French West Indies The French West Indies or French Antilles (, ; ) are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean: * The two overseas departments of: ** Guadeloupe, including the islands of Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Les Saintes, Ma ...

in 1635, and was among the first Europeans to live on

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...

. Breton devoted nearly twenty years to missionary activity in the Antilles. From 1641 to 1651 he was on

Dominica Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of t ...

, living with the

Island Caribs The Kalinago, also called Island Caribs or simply Caribs, are an Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. They may have been related to the Kalina people, Mainland Caribs (Kalina) of South ...

. He also spent time going from island to island, teaching and evangelizing the natives in their own tongue, through which he became an adept in the various Carib languages. According to Breton, he arrived on Saint Vincent at one point, but did not stay because local Caribs had killed two prior proselytizers. Returning to France in 1654, he devoted much of his time to preparing young priests for the West Indian missions.

Works

Breton was responsible for the following works: *''A Catechism of the Christian Doctrine in Carib'' (Auxerre, 1664); *A French-Carib and Carib-French dictionary, with copious notes, historical and explanatory, on what Breton took to be the Carib language (ibid., 1665) - linguist Douglas Macrae Taylor stated that it was "quite clear that the language described by Breton (in the Lesser Antilles) was Arawak, not Carib (though containing many Carib elements)";David Wahayona Campos Reyes, "The Origin and Survival of the Taíno Language" (1999), https://indigenouscaribbean.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/davidcampos.pdf, quoting Taylor (1977) *a Carib grammar (ibid., 1667). At the request of the general of the order, he also wrote a valued history of the first years of the French Dominicans' missionary work among the Caribbean Indians: *''Relatio Gestorum a primis Praedicatorum missionariis in insulis Americanis ditionis gallicae praesertim apud Indos indigenas quos Caribes vulgo dicunt ab anno 1634 ad annum 1643'' (MSS). This is of historical importance, and has been used by several writers.

Notes

References

* Quétif and Jacques Échard, ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Breton, Raymond 1609 births 1679 deaths People from Beaune French Dominicans French Roman Catholic missionaries Dominican missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in Guadeloupe Roman Catholic missionaries in Dominica French expatriates in Dominica