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The Effects of Christianization Among the Indigenous Communities of Kongo & Lower Canada

By the end of the seventeenth century and the turn of the eighteenth Europeans had discovered, explored, and in some cases conquered, the continents of Africa and the Americas. The Western world was heavily Christian, and so missionaries made it their goal to spread Christianity to newfound indigenous people who they deemed “savages,” or, at the very least, pagans. Many historians have explored the religious aspect of contact in great detail. John Thornton has written numerous works on the outcomes and implications of the Christian presence in Kongo, which began as early as the fifteenth century. Conversely, Daniel K. Richter has explored the same interaction on the American continent, although in a slightly later timeframe. Despite similarities between the missionary experience in both areas, challenges and outcomes in each region were radically different. Two women, Dona Beatriz from the Kongo and Kateri from the Mo hawk nation, are useful guides in examining the processes and outcomes of evangelizing in such different areas. This paper casts Beatriz and Kateri as autonomous figures in their own conversion. Both women lived during roughly the same time, and both devoted their lives to the Christian faith. However, Dona Beatriz was scorned and eventually killed for her faith-based movement, while Kateri was recently beatified as the first Native American saint. This study contributes a transcontinental comparison to the study of exchange during the period of Atlantic exploration in order to more fully understand the intricacies of the Christianization process and to highlight the role indigenous people had in their own conversion.