Cuoq, Father Jean André

1898, July 21

Date of Birth:  1821, June 6

Paris
November 4, 1898

Fathers and Very Dear in Our Lord,

On last July 21st we lost, at the Lake of the Two Mountains, the exemplary Father Cuoq, who for more than fifty years had been pastor and father of the Indians of that mission.

Born at Le Puy on June 6, 1821, Father Jean André Cuoq was dedicated to God by his pious mother while she was carrying him in her womb. He was only ten years old when he lost his father. Sent to the college of Le Puy for his classical studies, he early on distinguished himself by his intelligence and by his piety as well as by his character, at the time energetic and sportive. Although he got along well with most of his fellow-students, he was nonetheless the object of bad treatment from some – jealous no doubt of his worth and his success. So it was that one day he received from one of them a punch in the eye so violent that from it his sight thereafter remained impaired. But neither that incident nor other less serious pestering ever left the least rancor in his heart.

At the major seminary of Le Puy, where he entered as his classical training came to a close, Father Cuoq showed himself an excellent student, thoroughly polite, pious, reliable, of good character, happy, on good terms with everyone. It is remembered that drawn to languages even then, he took Spanish and gave instructions in it.

In October 1844, at twenty-three, since he had finished Theology and had received the diaconate, he came to St. Sulpice in Paris, where he was the student of Father Le Hir. The following year he entered the Solitude and was ordained priest there on December 20, 1845. At the end of his novitiate he took a resolution to depart the American mission; and, in the spirit of sacrifice, he formally added to that resolution the one of never returning to France. He went back to Le Puy only to take leave of his family. His good mother was at first upset by his resolution, but her faith and generosity quickly revived in the presence of his. Moreover, the young missionary kept calling on merriment to help [ease the shock]. Soon his mother was the first to say: “Go my son, if God is calling you. Far be it from me to keep you from doing His will!”

When, on November 20, 1846, he arrived at Montreal after a crossing of nearly six weeks, Father Cuoq was employed there in parochial ministry during his first year. In 1847 he was sent to the Lake of the Two Mountains as missionary to the Algonquins; eleven years later he was put in charge also of the mission to the Iroquois. It can be said that since then – up to his last day – he never ceased being involved with one or the other, although his actual presence at the Lake of the Two Mountains underwent some interruptions. For instance, in 1859 he was on the faculty of the college of Montreal as teacher of Prosody, and in 1860 he accompanied Father Faillon to Baltimore. On that occasion he did some part-time teaching at St. Charles College. Still later, he spent some time in Montreal in parochial ministry. There as well as at the parish of Oka (modern name of the village of Two Mountains) when Canadian families began settling there, Father Cuoq gave proof of a definitely Sulpician zeal for discerning and encouraging vocations to the priesthood. He always showed a deep attachment, moreover, for the spirit and practices of St. Sulpice; he always drew from them the strength which sustained him in all his labors, and which consoled him in all his disappointments in his life as a missionary.

The Indian mission begun at Montreal on the coming of the first Sulpicians, soon after – in hope of escaping scandalous example – transferred to the Falls or Ricollet, and still later to the Lake of the Two Mountains, was, in its pristine state, a sort of commune. Father Cuoq saw its last good days when public penance was still being practiced; when, on big feasts, the young warriors took pride in serving Mass and in marching in processions decked in white albs with red and blue cinctures, bewigged or powdered, as in the Age of Louis XIV. At that time the summer months were for the missionary a time of heavy labor: back from the winter hunts to take it easy at the Lake of the Two Mountains, the Indians became more than ever the objects of his zeal. Both tribes, the Algonquins and the Iroquois, separately and each in its own language, had prayers after Holy Mass, morning and evening instructions, catechism lessons for First Communion. They came together only at night for Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. In these same months the Solemnity of the Forty Hours was held with a procession on Louis XIII Road and by a pilgrimage to the Mountain Way of the Cross, a pilgrimage which served each year as the closing exercise of the “mission.” Then Father Cuoq could begin something of an easing-off period, which he utilized by studying and composing works calculated to increase the Indians’ piety. It was a precarious relaxation, however; to be interrupted more than once for their sake by winter trips over the Ottawa ice. But these rough trips were in their turn of benefit to his writings, for they put him in contact with hitherto unknown tribes and dialects.

Today, surrounded by a burgeoning culture in which they seem to have no part at all, their faith corrupted by self-serving preachers, reduced in numbers by apostasy and then by the departure of many of them to areas quite a way off, the Indians of Oka form in the midst of a young Canadian parish hardly more than a small band of the faithful, insignificant in the eyes of the world, but always infinitely dear to the missionary who has the care of their souls. In their service Father Cuoq wore himself out, continuing to be a child dealing with children, and very little caring about the growing renown which his philological work had achieved in the world of scholarship.