Saint François de Laval

François de Montmorency-Laval was born in 1623 in Montigny-sur-Avre, France, into one of the country's most noble families. He gave up his inheritance to become a priest and was ordained in 1647. In 1658 he was consecrated bishop and sent as vicar apostolic to New France, arriving in Quebec in 1659 when the colony had only a few hundred settlers. In 1674 he became the first bishop of Quebec, a diocese that then stretched across much of North America.

Laval founded the Seminary of Quebec in 1663 to train local priests, organized parishes, and fought firmly against the sale of brandy to the Indigenous peoples, which was devastating their communities. He lived in great poverty, sleeping little and giving his goods to the poor. After resigning in 1688 he remained in Quebec, where he died on May 6, 1708. Pope Francis canonized him in 2014.

In Canada his feast is an optional memorial, and pilgrims visit his tomb in the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec. Université Laval, which grew out of his seminary, bears his name.