PÉLERIN, AMBROISE, baptized Pierre, priest, Recollet; b. at Trois-Rivières and baptized 10 July 1656, eldest son of Pierre Pélerin, Sieur de Saint-Amant, a soldier in the garrison of Trois-Rivières, and of Louise de Mousseaux; d. 12 Dec. 1708 in Paris.

Ambroise Pélerin began his studies at the Jesuit college in Quebec, for his parents had moved to this town around 1661; then he was one of the first group of eight pupils of the Petit Séminaire of Quebec, which opened its doors 1 Oct. 1668.

In 1673 Pélerin entered the Recollet order and had to go to France to do his noviciate, since the Recollets did not yet have a noviciate in Quebec. The following year he made his profession, thus becoming the first Canadian Recollet. He received the diaconate 23 Sept. 1679 at the seminary in Sens (France), and the priesthood probably the following year.

He returned to Canada in 1684 and on 6 October of that year he was at the convent of Notre-Dame-des-Anges in Quebec as a missionary. In 1684 and 1685 he was in charge of the parish of Saint-Joseph de la Pointe-Lévy, in whose records his name appears. In 1686 he replaced the parish priest of Trois-Rivières, M. de Bruslon. From October 1687 to November 1688 he carried out the duties of parish priest at Champlain, near Trois-Rivières. On 11 Dec. 1688 he was again in Quebec. After that we lose sight of him until 17 Nov. 1704; at that time he was a discreet (counsellor) in the convent of Quebec, where, along with other religious, he signed an attestation of a cure attributed to Brother Didace Pelletier*.

In 1705 he returned to France, where he served as a preacher. On 12 Dec. 1708 he died in the Recollet convent in Paris at 52 years of age and after 35 years of life in holy orders.

Gabriel-M.-Réal Dumas