GAULIN, ANTOINE, priest of the Séminaire des Missions Étrangères in Quebec, missionary to the Abenaki and Micmac (Mi’kmaq) of Acadia and Nova Scotia; b. 16 April 1674 at Sainte-Famille, Île d’Orléans, and was baptized the following day; son of François Gaulin, a farmer, and Marie Rocheron; d. 6 March 1740 at Quebec and was buried there the next day at the cathedral.

Ordained a priest at Quebec on 21 Dec. 1697, Gaulin came to Acadia in 1698, and the following year he replaced Father Louis-Pierre Thury* as missionary to the Abenaki at Pentagouet (near Castine, Maine); Father Philippe Rageot served as his assistant. In this early period Gaulin committed himself to fighting the brandy trade operated by Claude-Sébastien de Villieu. On 5 Oct. 1702 he was named vicar-general in Acadia by Louis Ango Des Maizerets. He became a missionary to the Micmac and used the hieroglyphic writing system established by Chrestien Le Clercq* to help teach the catechism.

It was at this time that Gaulin revived Thury’s plans to gather the Indigenous people of the Penobscot area into a large mission near Canso, far from New England, while reinforcing French positions. The plan was thwarted in 1707, however, when the English captured the supplies intended for the new mission. War with the English intervened, and that same year Gaulin, with Bernard-Anselme d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin, led a group of Micmac warriors to meet Colonel John March and his troops. He also proceeded to make a detailed census, completed in 1708, of seven Micmac villages, with the goal of evaluating their military potential. After the capture of Port-Royal (renamed Annapolis Royal) in 1710, Gaulin, acting on instructions from Pontchartrain, had the Micmac warriors raid and harass the English to prevent them from becoming solidly established in Nova Scotia. The English garrison was commanded at this time by Samuel Vetch and by his lieutenant Sir Charles Hobby. Gaulin was unable to lead an all-out attack on Annapolis Royal, however, because the ship bringing clothing, arms, and munitions to the Micmac was captured by the English.

Between 1717 and 1720, after France had founded a new colony on Île Royale (Cape Breton Island), Gaulin succeeded in bringing together a great number of Micmac from the peninsula in a large mission at Antigonish – within English territory but close to Île Royale. Later, he established missions at Cape Sable, La Hève (La Have), Shubenacadie, and Mirligueche (near Lunenburg).

Gaulin and fellow missionaries Justinien Durand* and Félix Pain* were less successful in encouraging many Acadians to move to Île Royale. In 1718 Gaulin went to France to solicit assistance “for the benefit of religion and the advantage of the colony.” With increased funds he was able, in 1727, to carry out a census of Acadians in Nova Scotia, and with his assistant, Michel Courtin, to translate prayers and a catechism into the Micmac language. His new resources also enabled Gaulin to better perform his duties of proselytizing, maintaining among the Acadians some loyalty for France, and preventing Indigenous people from signing a peace treaty with the English. These activities led Lawrence Armstrong, the English lieutenant-governor at Annapolis Royal, to call him before the executive council in 1726; the council restricted him to the post of curate at Minas (Les Mines). At the same time, the French were accusing him of encouraging peace between the English and Indigenous people; however, the accusations were subsequently proven false. His health was now broken by years of service; he lived quietly at Minas until 1731 and then at Annapolis until 1732, when he retired to Quebec.

Gaulin was feared by the English because of his powerful influence among Indigenous people and Acadians, trusted by the French as their chief contact with First Nations, and appreciated by Indigenous people because he went deeply into debt to improve their living conditions.

Gaulin is depicted in an ex-voto at Sainte-Anne de Beaupré, in which he is a passenger on a storm-tossed ship being saved by Saint Anne.

David Lee