BRESSANI, FRANCESCO GIUSEPPE. - Missionary in Canada and confessor of the faith. Born in Rome on 16 May 1612, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1626. After completing his studies in Rome and Paris, he taught in the latter city for some time; in 1642 he embarked for New France. After an initial initiation into missionary work, at Québec and Trois-Rivières, he was assigned (1644) to the Huron mission, but on the journey he fell into the hands of the Iroquois and was tortured by them with great cruelty. Saved by his incredible physical endurance, he escaped from captivity with the help of the Dutch and landed at La Rochelle on 15 Nov. 1644, arousing general admiration, which won over even the court of Paris. B. obtained from Innocent X, as shortly before St. Isaac Jogues had from Urban VIII, permission to celebrate Mass despite having mutilated hands, and he set out again for Canada. He worked among the Hurons from the autumn of 1645 to the summer of 1649, that is, until the end of the Huron mission. He then returned to Europe (after 9 years spent in Canada), first to France (he was at the college of Moulins in 1651), then to Italy, where he preached with very great success, in Rome (1662-66), in Florence, in Naples. He died in Florence on 9 Sept. 1672.

In 1653 he had published at Macerata, dedicating it to Cardinal de Lugo, a Breve relazione d'alcune missioni de' pp. della Compagnia di Gesù nella Nuova Francia (French trans. with an introduction by Fr. M. Martin, Montréal and Paris 1852; reprinted with an English trans. in the Jesuit Relations of R. G. Thwaites, vols. XXXVIII-XL, Cleveland 1899).

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: C. De Rochemonteix, Les Jésuites et la Nouvelle France au XVIIe siècle, II, Paris 1896, pp. 36-43 and 444-49; T. J. Campbell, Pioneer Priests of North America, I, New York 1908, pp. 42-60; G. Castellani, Una vittima ignorata degli Iracchi, F. G. B. S. I., in La Civiltà Catt., 1934, IV, pp. 471-484; Sommervogel, II, col. 133; VIII, col. 1927; Streit, Bibl., II, p. 807.

Edmondo Lamalle

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Bressani, Francesco Giuseppe

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