HUET, PAUL, Recollet priest, missionary; d. 1655 at Vitry.

He had made his profession with the Recollets of the province of Paris in 1604. On 11 April 1617, he sailed from Honfleur. On landing at Tadoussac, he built a chapel of branches and foliage there, and on 11 July 1617 celebrated in it what appears to have been the first mass ever said in that place. He was the first priest to live at Trois-Rivières, where he stayed from 29 June to 14 July 1618; he celebrated mass during the whole time he was there. In the interests of the mission, Father Huet sailed for France on 26 July 1618 in company with Father Pacifique Duplessis. In Paris he consulted the theologians of the Sorbonne on the administration of baptism to the Indians, and employed himself in collecting alms with a view to building a monastery and a seminary at Quebec. On his return to the colony the following year, he undertook the construction of the monastery, which was completed in 1621. In 1622, Father Huet assumed the direction of the mission at Trois-Rivières, replacing Father Poulain. On 4 Jan. 1624, he was again at Quebec, where he baptized Marguerite Martin, daughter of Abraham Martin.

After leaving Canada, he worked energetically for the return of the Recollets to New France, but without any immediate success. He occupied various ecclesiastical posts in France: at Metz in 1637, at Rouen in 1650. At Montargis, he was director of junior clergy, among whom was Louis Hennepin*, the future companion of Cavelier de La Salle. Father Huet died suddenly at Vitry in Champagne on 16 Feb. 1655.

G.-M. Dumas

ASQ, MSS, 200, Mortuologe des Recolets. Champlain, Œuvres (Laverdière). Le Clercq, First establishment of the faith (Shea), I, 116, 118–20, et passim; Premier établissement de la foy. Sagard, Histoire du Canada (Tross), I, passim. Jouve, Les Franciscains et le Canada: aux Trois-Rivières; Les Franciscains et le Canada (1615–1629). P.-G. Roy, La ville de Québec, I.