The mission of St. Francis Xavier was a seventeenth-century Jesuit mission located on the rapids of the Fox River near

De Pere, Wisconsin De Pere ( ) is a city located in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 25,410 according to the 2020 Census. De Pere is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area. History At the arrival of the first European, J ...

. It was founded in 1671 by

Claude Allouez Claude Jean Allouez (June 6, 1622 – August 28, 1689) was a Jesuit missionary and French explorer of North America. He established a number of missions among the indigenous people living near Lake Superior. Biography Allouez was born in Sa ...

to proselytize the native peoples of the western Great Lakes. In 1684 a chapel measuring 70'x40' and seating six-hundred was completed under the direction of Father Verboort to serve an expanding Catholic population.
History of St. Francis Xavier Parish The mission was used as a base of operations by

Nicolas Perrot Nicolas Perrot (–1717), a French explorer, fur trader, and diplomat, was one of the first European men to travel in the Upper Mississippi Valley, in what is now Wisconsin and Minnesota. Biography Nicolas Perrot was born in France between 1641 ...

in his explorations of the Upper Midwest in the 1680s. In 1686 he made a present of a silver

ostensorium A monstrance, also known as an ostensorium (or an ostensory), is a vessel used in Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, High Church Lutheran and Anglican churches for the display on an altar of some object of piety, such as the consecrated Eucharistic ...

to the mission which was rediscovered by workmen digging a foundation in 1802. In 1687 the mission of St. Francis Xavier was destroyed in an Iroquois attack.

References

*Campbell, Henry Colin. Wisconsin In Three Centuries. 1st. New York: The Century History Company, 1906. Print. Buildings and structures in Brown County, Wisconsin Catholic Church in Wisconsin History of Wisconsin 1671 establishments in New France 1687 disestablishments in New France De Pere, Wisconsin {{Wisconsin-stub