MOHIER (Moyer), GERVAIS, Recollet friar and missionary; b. 1599 at Chartres; d. 1662 at Châlons.

After making his profession with the Recollets of the province of Paris on 2 June 1625, he was sent to Canada the following year to replace Brother Sagard. He sailed from Dieppe on 24 April with Father Le Caron and Champlain, and reached Quebec on 4 July. He spent a year at the monastery at Notre-Dame-des-Anges, where he worked hard at instructing a young Montagnais who was baptized on Whitsunday 1627 and given the name of Louis.

In July 1627 he went to join the Indians who had gathered at Cap-de-la-Victoire for the fur trade. The Montagnais had brought with them two Iroquois prisoners, one of whom was slaughtered despite Brother Mohier’s protests. A few days later, an Algonkin medicine man, Napagabiscou, fell ill; having been moved for some time by the preaching of Father Le Caron, he requested baptism, which was administered to him in extremis by Brother Mohier.

In 1628 the Algonkins entreated Brother Mohier and Father Le Caron to go and live in their territory in order to save the missions being threatened by the Kirke brothers. The Recollets set out, but soon returned when it was announced that the English had withdrawn. The following year, however, after the surrender of Quebec, Brother Mohier, along with all the other missionaries, was obliged to leave Canada permanently. He died at Châlons in Champagne on 10 May 1662.

G.-M. Dumas

ASQ, MSS, 200, Mortuologe des Recolets. Champlain, Œuvres (Laverdière). Le Clercq, First establishment of the faith (Shea), I, 260, 293, 335, 344, 366. Sagard, Histoire du Canada (Tross), II, IV, passim. Jouve, Les Franciscains et le Canada (1615–1629).