Pierre Biard, a Jesuit missionary in Acadia, was regarded by the Micmac tribe as a European with shamanistic powers. Born in Grenoble, France, in 1576, he was summoned from his position as professor of scholastic theology and Hebrew at the University of Lyons to head the mission to Acadia. The choice of Biard was controversial: the founder of Acadia and many of its settlers were Huguenots and did not welcome a Catholic in their midst. Finally, after three years of waiting, the Jesuits arrived at Port Royal in May 1611.
In Acadia, Biard and his colleague, Enemond Masse, attempted to catechize the natives in their own language, though this took time. Biard was well-respected and recognized as having shamanistic powers after presiding over the "Grand Sagamore's" son, who had been left for dead as a result of illness. Later, during an Abenaki epidemic, he preached the.....
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