Pierre Biard

Pierre Biard (1567 – 17 November 1622) was a Jesuit missionary who was given orders by Father Pierre Coton, Jesuit provincial in Paris, to take charge of a mission at Port-Royal in Acadia, (present-day Nova Scotia, Canada) along with Father Énemond Massé.

Biography Pierre Biard was born in Grenoble, France in 1567. In 1583 he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tournon. He taught at Billom, studied philosophy and theology at Avignon, and was ordained a priest in 1599. He also taught theology at Tournon, and Hebrew at the Collège in Lyon, where he held the chair in scholastic theology.

Biard’s 1611 mission As de Monts was a Calvinist, as were a considerable number of the colonists, there was vehement opposition to the appointment of Biard and his colleague, Énemond Massé, as missionaries. Through the assistance of Antoinette de Pons, the Marquise de Guercheville, who purchased the vessel that was bringing out supplies, the Jesuits, after three years of waiting, were enabled to obtain passage by becoming part owners of the ship and cargo. L'abbe Fleche left on the next ship bound for France. The Jesuits required fuller instruction and greater signs of faith before baptizing except when a person was in danger of death, a pastoral practice just being introduced in France. Biard vehemently criticized the earlier pastoral practise, and when those who desired baptism were refused, their resentment slowly built up against the Jesuits. In the two years they followed the stricter policy, they baptized twenty-one persons, all of whom were dying. Biard did little to soothe tensions, and fell out with the King's official, Charles de Biencourt, son of Poutrincourt, in France trying to raise funds for the colony. Biencourt hoped to use a higher number of baptisms to encourage donations.

Madame de Guercheville purchased Acadia from Sieur de Monts, obtained financial support from her many friends at the royal court, and arranged for a vessel under the authority of René Le Coq de La Saussaye at the Jesuits' request to bring them, now four, to another a locale of their choice for a new mission. One of the new missioners was Brother Gilbert Du Thet, whom Poutrincourt's agent accused of making regicide comments. The allegation disproved, Poutrincourt refused to discipline his agent and prevented both the friar and Biard from returning to France to defend the allegation. For this, Biard excommunicated Poutrincourt, which situation lasted about three months. Brother Du Thet, SJ, being killed in the fray, the first Jesuit to die in North America.

Biard and some French colonists, skilled labourers, were taken to Jamestown, Virginia.

Biard died in 1622 after writing about these adventures.