Documents, in the archives of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, at Paris, relating to this period, show the fervour of those now planning "by the goodness of God to see in a short time a new church arise which shall imitate the purity and the charity of the primitive church."
The Associates, being in the necessity of sending out their first consignment of men according to their agreement, it became necessary to choose a governor, dignified, brave and wise, and a good Christian, a man to command against the attacks of the fierce Iroquois and to build up the civil life of the community. How the choice fell upon Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, a gentleman of Champagne, must now be told. Here we follow Dollier de Casson and contemporary chroniclers. Paul de Chomedey, though still young, being commonly thought to be within his fortieth year, had followed the career of arms since his thirteenth year, and had given the first proofs of his courage in the war against the Dutch. Amid the dissipations of a soldier's life, Colonel de Maisonneuve had retained his probity and purity unsullied. He loved his profession, but he often desired to exercise it in some far-off country, where the gaieties and distractions in which he now found himself a solitary man should not be forced upon him, so that he might serve God more easily, and remain faithful to his high purposes. Thus he was in the world but not of it. De Chomedey had a sister to whom he was devoted, a member of the Congregation of Notre Dame at Troyes, that ancient birthplace of warriors, poets and saints, on the Seine. This good woman, they say, desired to partake of the romantic and apostolic life of the Ursulines Hospitalières at Quebec, as related by the Jesuits in their letters then being printed and circulated in France. Doubtless by her whole-souled enthusiasm she had already turned her brother's thoughts in the same direction of self-sacrifice.
In the dispositions, happening while visiting the house of a friend, to put his hand by chance upon a copy of these "Relations," in turning over the leaves he came across the name of Father Lalemant, the former superior of the Canadian missions, whom he knew to be now in Paris. The thought came to him that perhaps he might find congenial occupation in Canada. Thereupon visiting the good Jesuit, he opened his heart to him.