Kaskaskia Mission

The Jesuits were priests who belonged to a Roman Catholic religious order founded in 1540. They lived a life of discipline, study, and self-sacrifice. The Jesuits were teachers and missionaries who felt responsible for not only their own spiritual perfection but that of others as well.

In the 1700s the men who joined the order were predominantly French, Spanish, and Portuguese. To become a priest, they spent years studing theology, literature, the sciences, and philosophy. Many Jesuits became teachers and taught in colleges throughout Europe established by the Jesuit order. Many Jesuits became missionaries and joined missions in Asia, Africa, South America, and North America that had been established by the order by the 1700s.

© Illinois State Museum 31-Dec-96