(Or JEAN-FRANÇOIS BISSON DE SAINT-COSME)

Born in Quebec, Canada, February, 1667; killed, 1707. Entering the Séminaire des Missions Etrangères of Quebec, he was ordained in 1690 and after serving for a time at Minas, Nova Scotia (then Acadia ), was assigned to the western mission. He laboured for a time at the Cahokia (Tamaroa) mission in Illinois, until succeeded by Father Jean Bergier, probably about 1698, after which he followed Fathers Montigny and Davion, of the same seminary, to the lower Mississippi, and took up his residence among the Natchez, about the present Natchez, Mississippi, establishing the first mission in the tribe, apparently about the end of 1699. The tribes of this region, however, were generally obdurate and neither secular missionaries nor Jesuits met with success, so that by the end of 1704 all but the Natchez mission had been abandoned, leaving Father St-Cosme alone. After several years of unrequited labour, he was finally murdered, with three French companions and a slave, while descending the Mississippi, being attacked while asleep by a party of the savage Shetimasha. To avenge this death, Bienville, Governor of Louisiana, summoned the Natchez and other friendly tribes to take up arms against the Shetimasha, with the result that the latter tribe was almost exterminated. A cousin of the same name was also a priest in Quebec (b. 1660; d. 1712).

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online