Dominique du Ranquet

Dominique du Ranquet
Father du Ranquet
Born	1813 Chains, Puy-de-Dôme, France
Occupation	Jesuit missionary

Dominique du Ranquet, also known as Father du Ranquet, was a Jesuit missionary who served at the Fort William Mission.

Early life

• Born in 1813 at Chains, Puy-de-Dôme, France, into a family of the old French nobility.
• Departed France on 24 April 1842 and arrived in Canada on 1 June 1842, spending several months at Oka, near Ottawa, studying Indigenous languages before beginning his missionary work among the Ojibwe of the Great Lakes.

Missionary work

• du Ranquet served two periods at the Fort William Mission — about 1852 to 1859 and about 1860 to 1878 — holding the position of superior of the mission during his later residence.
• He had particular difficulty with the Ojibwe band at Fort William, especially its chief Peau de Chat.

Hardships

• On one journey, probably toward Nipigon, his canoe overturned near shore; he swam to land pushing it before him but lost his gun and his portable chapel, continued on foot to reach a dying man who had been mauled by a bear, administered to him, and sheltered overnight under his overturned canoe before arriving exhausted at the dock of a trader, Mr. Finlayson.
• du Ranquet never disclosed the hardships he endured unless he knew them already witnessed by others; this account was recorded by Mr. Finlayson, who related it to Father Choné.
• On one cold winter evening, returning from distant missions, he reached the mission with his beard covered in frost and so weakened that Father Choné was briefly uncertain whether to administer extreme unction.