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TheFranciscan Recollects (French:Récollets) were a French reform branch of theFriars Minor, aFranciscan order. Denoted by their gray habits and pointed hoods, the Recollects devoted their lives to an extra emphasis on prayer, penance, and spiritual reflection (recollection), focusing on living in small, remote communities to better facilitate these goals. Today they are best known for their activities as missionaries in various parts of the world, most notably in early French Canada.
This branch of the Order had its origins in the 16th century. Officially named the "Order of Friars Minor Recollect", they used thepost-nominal initialsO.F.M. Rec. (Latin:Ordo fratrum minorum recollectorum)[1] orO.M.R. (Ordo minorum recollectorum). In 1897Pope Leo XIII dissolved the Recollect branch and merged it, along with several other reform branches of the Order, into theObservant Friars Minor.
In LatinOrdo fratrum minorum recollectorum, this last word is the genitive form ofrecollecti (sg.:recollectus, a participle ofrecolligere, ‘to gather’). The word is related to the French wordsrecueilli (‘contemplative, meditative’) andrecueillement ("gathering one's thought in contemplation, meditation").[2]
The origin of the name "Recollects" is still debated. Some historians attribute it to therecollection houses (retreats). Others credit it to the orders’ practice of accepting only those who possessed the ability of recollection.
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The Recollect branch of the Friars Minor developed out of a reform movement of the Order which began in 16th-century Spain under figures such asPeter of Alcantara, where the followers of the reform were known as Alcantarines. It was observed by communities of friars in France inTulle in 1585, atNevers in 1592, atLimoges in 1596 and inParis atCouvent des Récollets in 1603. The distinctive character of Recollection houses was that they were friaries to which brothers desirous of devoting themselves to prayer and penance could withdraw to consecrate their lives to spiritual reflection. At the same time, they were also active in many pastoral ministries, becoming especially known asmilitary chaplains to the French army.
The French Recollects had 11provinces, with 2,534 friaries by the late 18th century. The branch was suppressed during theFrench Revolution.[3]
The Recollects were important as earlymissionaries to theFrench colonies inCanada, although they were later displaced by theJesuits. WhenSamuel de Champlain returned from his sixth voyage to Canada on 26 May 1613, he made plans to bring missionaries on his next voyage.[4] Champlain had initially turned to the Recollects after receiving advice from his friend Sieur Louis Houel, Secretary to KingLouis XIII and controller-general of the salt works atHiers-Brouage.[5] Houel was familiar with the Recollects who had been established in Brouage since 1610. Since the merchants from theSociété des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo were paying Champlain's expensive transportation costs, they insisted he and Houel choose effective yet inexpensive missionaries to join the voyage.[6] Thus, the vows of poverty observed by friars played in their favor. Champlain was also influenced by the successful Franciscan missions in the New World and in Japan.[7] Furthermore, the Jesuit Acadian mission had failed in 1613 following a British raid led by CaptainSamuel Argall againstPort Royal in present-dayNova Scotia.[8] There had also been resentment towards Jesuits in France at the time when Champlain was planning his mission. Echoes of controversies between the Jesuits and Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt et de Saint-Just, the lieutenant-governor of Acadia, involving comments made about the regicide ofKing Henry IV on 14 May 1610, resonated in France. These events persuaded Champlain that the Recollects were the right religious order to bring to New France. The Recollects travelled toNew France with Champlain in 1615, where they first arrived atTadoussac in May 1615, and later travelled toQuebec City in June 1615.[9]
Father Denis Jamet, the commissary overseeing the establishment of the mission in New France, FathersJoseph Le Caron,Jean Dolbeau, and Brother Pacifique Duplessis (du Plessis) were chosen as missionaries to accompany Champlain.[10] Although the Recollects were not the first religious order in New France (the Jesuits had been inAcadia since 1611), they were the first to enter and establish themselves as an order in the province of Quebec. Upon arrival the Recollet Fathers formed a conclave to divide the territory of Quebec. Jean Dolbeau was assigned the northern shore of theSaint Lawrence Valley, the territory of theMontagnais (Innu), as well as the post ofTadoussac. Joseph Le Caron was given theHuron mission and other Amerindian populations in the regions of theGreat Lakes. Denis Jamet receives missions between Quebec City andTrois-Rivières.[11]
As part of theAnglo-French War of 1626–1629 in Europe, the British captured Quebec City on 20 July 1629.[12]On 9 September that year, the Recollects were forced to return to France along with the Jesuits, who were forcibly removed on 21 July. The two groups of friars were transported toCalais, France, where they arrived on 29 October 1629.[13] The Recollects petitioned the French government several times between 1630 and 1637 to return to New France, but were blocked byCardinal Richelieu and his agents, who were determined to keep both the Jesuits and the Recollects out of New France.[14] Several Recollects, including veteran missionary Joseph Le Caron, appealed to theCapuchin missionaries, originally fromNew England, to return the Quebec mission to them. The Capuchins acquiesced, but Cardinal Richelieu ordered that the Jesuits replace the Capuchins in Quebec, additionally forbidding the Recollects from travelling on French ships to New France.[15] Frustrated with the French bureaucracy, the Recollects petitioned the papacy in Rome to return to New France, and succeeded in gaining permission to undertake their endeavour in 1637.[16] However, they were once again denied passage aboard French ships. This conflict continued in 1643 when QueenAnne of Austria, the regent of France, granted their request; but once again no transport was obtained. The Recollects would not re-enter New France until 1670, nearly forty years since their expulsion[17] After returning, they reestablished missions at Quebec, Trois-Rivières, and Montreal. On 22 March 1682 a Recollect chaplain who accompanied LaSalle,Father Zenobius, preached to theTensas tribe on the lower Mississippi River using his knowledge of theIllinois language.[18] In 1759, British conquest once again interfered with the Franciscans. Five years later, thebishop of Quebec,Jean-François Hubert, annulled the vows of any friarprofessed after 1784. Their numbers gradually decreased until, by 1791, only five friars remained. The last Canadian Recollect, Father Louis Demers, died inMontreal in 1813.[19]
InNewfoundland, Recollect friars established a friary in 1689 at the island's capital, Plaisance (nowPlacentia), which was staffed until 1701 by friars fromSaint-Denis, nearParis. In 1701, they were replaced by friars fromBrittany, an arrangement which lasted until the expulsion of the French from Newfoundland in 1714 after theTreaty of Utrecht. In English-speaking Newfoundland, Recollect priests fromIreland played a significant role in the introduction and early leadership of Roman Catholicism on the island, following the public announcement of religious liberty to Roman Catholics by GovernorJohn Campbell in 1784.The evangelization missions taking place between 1615 and 1629 can be divided into three periods. The first, from 1615 to 1623, was a period of discovery: it marked their initial effort at understanding and discovering the regions ofHuronia andTadoussac. During the second phase, from 1623 to 1625, the Recollects concentrated their efforts of evangelization in Huronia. The third period, from 1625 until their expulsion from New France in 1629, marks a time frame in which the Recollects shared their territory with the Jesuits, as the latter only arrived in New France in 1625.[20]
Recollect and Jesuit missionaries were very much the same, in the sense that both orders sought to Christianize natives, while at the same time using similar methodologies. Within the Recollect theory of conversion, the French settlers in New France played a primordial role in the Christianization of indigenous peoples. They believed that colonization and evangelization were inseparable. On the contrary, the Jesuits held their evangelization efforts completely separate from their involvement in the French colony. The Recollects never neglected the French settlers in favour of devoting themselves entirely to the conversion of natives. French settlers were seen by the Recollects as the key to creating their ideal society; they wished to promote French-Native intermarriage, in the hopes of eventually building a larger Christian settlement. In practice, however, the native populations encountered by the Recollects had no intentions on settling permanently in the French colony. This led the missionaries to instead travel alongside indigenous communities in the hopes of teaching them about the Catholic faith, much like their Jesuit counterparts.[21]
The goal of the Recollects in New France was to undertake missionary work among the indigenous peoples who lived there. This work was not without its challenges; for example, language proved a difficult barrier to overcome. To solve this problem, the Recollects recruitedtruchements (helpers), who were young and resourceful men from humble backgrounds, to interpret indigenous linguistic patterns and respond with gestures and miming. Thetruchements were supported financially by the missionaries, giving some the opportunity to rise within New France's social ranks. For example,Nicolas Marsolet [fr] was granted aseigneury, whilePierre Boucher became governor of Trois-Rivières, later founding the town ofBoucherville.[22]
Their return to New France in 1670 was led by Father Germain Allart, accompanied by Gabriel de la Ribourde, Simple Landon, Hilarion Guenin, Anselme Bardoun, and Brother Luc. The territory of Quebec had since been carved up amongst the Jesuits, who claimed theLaurentian Valley and other western territories, and theSulpicians who owned Montreal and its surrounding region.[23] At this point, the conversion of Amerindians to Christianity was no longer the main priority of the Recollects, as they were more concerned with rebuilding infrastructure that had been left behind following their expulsion by the British in 1629.[24] Nonetheless, they continued to partake in evangelization missions inGaspesia, inAcadia, and inLouisiana.[25]
The Recollects usually had close connections to the natives. In fact, when they first arrived in New France, they openly welcomed "unruly" native children within their walls in order to teach them the way of God. Even though they quickly realized that they did not have enough money to continue this mission, they still maintained relatively good relations with the natives, especially with theHurons. As the RecollectGabriel Sagard shows in his writings, their convent was very close to a few indigenous settlements, and he himself was very good friend with some Hurons. Some even addressed him with Huron kinship terms; some called him Ayein (meaning "son"), and others called him Ataquen (meaning "brother"). He also writes about what a typical day with them looked like: He would usually eat with them, and then he would sometimes follow them as they went about their everyday lives. They taught him about their beliefs, their customs, and they taught him their language, which would later help him in creating a useful dictionary.[26]
Despite their limited financial resources and small numbers, the Recollects were the first to carry out significant missionary work in New France. For example, they were the first pastors in the colony at Port Royal.[27] Jean Dolbeau celebrated the first Mass ever said in Quebec. He became Provincial Commissary of the mission in 1618 and preached the first jubilee accorded to Canada. He built the first friary of the Recollects at Quebec in 1620.
Texts written by Recollect missionaries combined aspects of natural history and ethnography, as they generally paid very close attention to the environments these men lived in. In the case of Sagard, he describes everything that he sees, from plants, to animals, to his relations with the natives he encounters. Compared to the Jesuits, Recollect presence in New France was minimal. The writings of the Recollects were less popular than those of the Jesuits, who targeted a wider audience. Consequently, their works were less influential for the Jesuit writings on New France were considered more authoritative sources on the New World. When writing about their missions, the Recollects emphasized the importance of observing, interacting with and understanding indigenous societies prior to writing about them. Their works often spoke of the difficulties encountered by missionaries when converting natives, which led to these texts being dismissed by readers as pessimistic. This explains, in part with the burning of the Recollects convent in 1796, the small quantity of texts related to the missions which have survived to this day.[28]
Recollects were important in the documentation of indigenous life in New France. Chrestien Leclercq wroteNouvelle Relation de la Gaspésie, which concerns itself with the ways of life of those indigenous communities that he resided with as a result of his missions among theMi’kmaq of Gaspésie.[29][30][31] As a result of spending so much time among the Mi’kmaq people, Leclercq was able to learn their language. His fluency in their dialect allowed him to compose a dictionary of the Mi’kmaq language, meant to serve as an aid for future missionaries who would live among these First Nations people.[32]Pacifique Duplessis was later sent to Trois-Rivères, where he evangelized Aboriginal communities, cared for the sick, and educated children. Because of the latter, he has been considered the first schoolmaster in New France. In 1620, the Recollects completed construction on the Notre-Dame-des-Agnes convent in Quebec, the first Canadian convent and Seminary.[33]Father Nicolas Viel travelled to Huronia with Gabriel Sagard and other missionaries to assist Father Le Caron. As a result of this voyage, Sagard published one of his more notable worksLe grand voyage du Pays des Hurons (1632) and later hisHistoire du Canada (1636) in which he described the daily life, customs, and habits of theHurons.
To this day Leclercq'sNouvelle Relation de la Gaspésie and Sagard'sLe grand voyage du Pays des Hurons is considered an important piece belonging to the large corpus of texts published on eastern Canada during its French regime.[34]
The Recollects were also present in other parts of the world. In 1521, the Province des Anges sent a few missionaries, R.P. Martin de Valence with nine priests and two fathers in theWest Indies, and there, they converted in a very short time more than one thousand and two hundred Indians.
In the late 17th century, the order had theseprovinces outside of Europe: four inNew Spain, four inPeru, and two elsewhere in Latin America and two in Southeast Asia.[35]
The Recollect monastery/convent in Buenos Aires is where the neighborhood ofRecoleta got its name.
The Recollects established a friary inAntigua, Guatemala. It was destroyed by theSanta Marta earthquakes of 1773 and is preserved today as a national monument,La Recolección Architectural Complex.
The Recollect monastery/convent in Asunción was nationalised byJosé Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia in 1824.
Through the presence of Spanish rule in theLow Countries, the reform took hold there, and then spread to the German friars. By the end of the 17th century, all of the provinces of the German-Belgian Nation of theOrder of Friars Minor were Recollect. This branch of the Recollects did not die out with the French Revolution but survived and was reinvigorated in the 19th century.[38]
By that period, it was one of the four major branches of the Order of Friars Minor, all of which lived under obedience to theminister general of the order, but under their ownprocurators general. All of them were merged in the Great Union of 1897 mandated byPope Leo XIII. At that time, there were seven provinces of Recollects.[39]
Connus sous le nom de Récollets, « recollecti », les recueillis, vivant dans un grand recueillement.("Known as the Recollects,Recollecti, the gathered/collected, live in great contemplation.")
the Recollets […] from […] Aquitaine […] to attend to the spiritual wants of the French fishermen scattered along the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia. Their chief station and chapel were on the St. John's River. […] The Indian, no less than the French trader and fisherman, reaped the advantages.
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