Gabriel Thubières de Levy de Queylus, S.S. (1612 – 20 May 1677), was a Sulpician priest from France, who was a leader in the development of New France. He was the founder and first superior of the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Montreal.
Contents
Life
Early life
De Queylus, as he was known during his life, was born in 1612 in Privezac, in the ancient Province of Rouergue in the Kingdom of France, a son of a wealthy nobleman. Destined for service in the Church, at the age of 11 he was made the commendatory abbot of the Abbey of Loc-Dieu, giving him the lifelong title of abbé. Choosing late in his life to pursue the priesthood, he studied at a seminary in the village of Vaugirard, now the Quartier Saint-Lambert in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. He was ordained a priest on 15 April 1645. In July of that year, he joined the Society of Saint-Sulpice, dedicated to the sound training of a clergy for France and her territories. That same year, independently, he joined the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, an organization dedicated to the conversion of the people of the First Nations in the recently conquered territory of New France.
Almost immediately after his admission to the Society, de Queylus gained the trust of its founder, Jean-Jacques Olier, whom he might have known from their mutual alma mater. Olier soon entrusted him with the task of establishing new seminaries in the format which he had instituted in 1641 in founding the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Paris. Within a few years, de Queylus had established seminaries in his native region of Rodez (1647), as well as in Nantes (1649) and Viviers (1650). In 1648, moreover, he was briefly made superior of the motherhouse of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. Two years later, de Queylus settled in the Vivarais, as the pastor of Privas, site of the final rebellion of the Huguenots in France. He worked to convert the remaining Huguenot population to the Catholic faith. He also established a Sulpician seminary at Clermont in 1656. Shortly after that, he was recalled to Paris.
New France
In 1656, the Societé de Montréal determined to establish a seminary in the colony of Ville-Marie, now Montreal, for the training of missionaries to the indigenous people of America. Olier, himself a member of the society, nominated de Queylus, his trusted assistant who had already successfully founded four such schools. Given de Queylus' large fortune and his characteristic generosity, it seemed even more of a natural choice for an enterprise which would require all the resources that could be found. Some members of the society further proposed that the candidate should be a bishop. Queylus gave his consent to both proposals. His nomination was declared at the General Assembly of the French clergy held on 10 January 1657.
The Jesuits, who at that point had complete control of the colony, objected and put forth an alternate candidate, François de Laval, who enjoyed the favor of the royal court. This rankled de Queylus for much of his time in New France, but he accepted the decision of the society. For the mission, Olier also appointed two other priests, Dominique Galinier and Gabriel Souart, and a deacon, Antoine d’Allet. All four set sail on 17 May 1657 from Saint-Nazaire in Brittany, after receiving ecclesiastical authority by letters dated 22 April, from François de Harlay de Champvallon, Archbishop of Rouen, who claimed authority over the operations of the Catholic Church in the colony. The archbishop had also given letters patent to de Queylus, naming him as his vicar general for the whole of New France. He did not tell de Queylus that his predecessor in Rouen had given that same authority to the Superior of the Jesuit missions in Canada in 1649.
De Queylus and his colleagues arrived at Île d’Orléans in late July of that year, where they were hosted in Rivière-des-Roches (now the Les Rivières Quarter of Quebec) at the house of René Maheut. As soon as he heard of the clerics' arrival, Jean de Quen, the Superior of the Jesuits, hastened to welcome them and brought them to Quebec. Their first meeting was polite and cordial. A few days later, de Queylus showed de Quen his letters of appointment. They agreed that the Jesuit would take no action in his capacity as vicar general, since the Archbishop of Rouen had left his status unclear. After confirming Joseph-Antoine Poncet, the Jesuit pastor of Quebec, in his appointment, the Sulpicians sailed for Montreal.
The Sulpicians had given Poncet a papal bull of indulgence granted by Pope Alexander VII on the occasion of his election to the papacy, with instructions to proclaim it from the pulpit. Without notifying his superior, Poncet read the papal document to his congregation. Quen interpreted this as a show of independence, and – as he was entitled to do by reason of his formal agreement with de Queylus – relieved Poncet as pastor and replaced him with Father Claude Pijart. Poncet, on his way to the Iroquois country, stopped at Ville-Marie at the beginning of September and informed de Queylus of this incident. De Queylus, taking offense in his turn, ordered Poncet to accompany him to Quebec. When they arrived there on 12 September, de Queylus immediately took control of the parish from Pijart and declared himself pastor. A battle of names ensued between de Queylus and de Quen.
Final days
By 1671 de Queylus' accomplishments had won the praise of the king and others. That year he returned to France for the division of his father's estate among himself and his brothers. While there, he took seriously ill and retired to the motherhouse in Paris, where he died on 20 May 1677.