Missionary priest in Minnesota Territory

On April 8, 1843, Father Augustin Ravoux finished his daily office and looked out at the Mississippi River. He later recalled, “I had under my eyes two beautiful rivers, a clear sky, a good fire, and nothing to disturb my mind. It is then that the voice of nature is easily heard and understood.”

God and nature were intertwined in his life as a missionary on the frontier, but their relationship was not always quite so positive. Just a few days later, as Father Ravoux continued his journey south along the river to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, his canoe was trapped in a jam of floating cakes of ice. He prayed to Jesus and Mary, who delivered him from the dangerous situation.

Father Ravoux chose this adventure as a missionary priest while he was a seminarian in France. In 1838, Bishop Mathias Loras of Dubuque, Iowa, visited the seminary in Puy to recruit men for his diocese; 23-year-old Ravoux and three of his classmates agreed and traveled to the United States to become Jesuits. After his arrival, he was ordained a priest and stationed at Prairie du Chien, where he began his work ministering to French settlers and the indigenous Dakota people in their native languages.

As one of very few priests in the Dubuque diocese (which spanned current-day Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and part of Wisconsin), Father Ravoux’s work was wide ranging in both geography and type. In 1842, he established a permanent mission to the Dakota in Chaska near the Faribault family’s trading post, where he learned the Dakota language. He printed a prayer book in Dakota, likely becoming Minnesota Territory’s first printer. Two years later, he was reassigned to Mendota and St. Paul, where he stayed until a bishop was assigned in 1851. He preached each Sunday in French and then added English to his repertoire a few years later when new settlers arrived. Meanwhile, in 1849, he founded the first church in what would become Minneapolis. It shared its name, St. Anthony of Padua, with the waterfall nearby.

Father Ravoux was also involved in one of the most infamous events in Minnesota history. Following the Dakota War of 1862, President Lincoln sentenced 38 Dakota men to be hanged on the day after Christmas. This was to be the largest mass execution in U.S. history. These men were offered the choice of a spiritual advisor in advance of their deaths, and 33 of them chose to be baptized by Father Ravoux, who spent the days before their baptism instructing them in the principles of the Catholic faith. He stayed with them in their final hours, hoping to console them and guide their souls toward heaven. In the days afterward, he quickly wrote and submitted a summary of his efforts to supporters in Europe, hoping to encourage their ongoing financial support for his work.

Father Ravoux continued his missionary work until 1891, when failing health confined him to St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul. He spent the last 15 years of his life there and died in 1906. But his legacy continues to take many forms in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. As is fitting for an influential pioneer, there is a short street named for him just west of the State Capitol in St. Paul. A few blocks south, the Cathedral of St. Paul features a fresco of Father Ravoux, whose body rests in St. Paul’s Calvary Cemetery among his brother priests.

Luiken is a Catholic and historian with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. She loves exploring and sharing the hidden histories that touch our lives every day.