Father Louis Petit
(1629-1709)

Petit arrived at Quebec in 1665 with a military contingent sent to deal with the Iroquois threat. Soon, Petit was found to be studying at the seminary at Quebec, and, we see too, the personal secretary to Bishop Laval. Petit was ordained a priest at Quebec in 1670. In 1676, Petit was sent to Acadia, to Port Royal, "a mere depot for pelts"; there to be the first priest to represent the Bishop at Quebec. It is interesting to note that father Petit was sent, at his request, a nun, who was to open up and run at Port Royal a boarding school for girls. (DCB.) In 1690, Abbé Petit was to do the negotiation with Phips which led to the capitulation of Port Royal to the New Englanders on terms, which in the circumstances, were favourable to the retiring French garrison. Petit and his fellow priest, Abbé Trouvé, together with Governor Meneval, and 58 soldiers were shipped to Boston as Phips' prisoners. Petit was to sail later that year, in 1690, with Phips in his abortive attack on Quebec. Before leaving Quebec in the fall of 1690, Petit was traded for English prisoners. Though I am not sure of the date, Father Petit was to return to his flock at Port Royal; but, by all appearances he did stay long. Johnston notes, as of 1694, that Petit is no longer in a position as paster at Port Royal. (A History of the Catholic Church in Eastern Nova Scotia, p. 27.) At any rate, at some point he returned to Quebec, there to carry out his priestly duties, until 1709, when Abbé Louis Petit died. He was buried at the cathedral at Quebec.