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François de Laval

First Catholic bishop of Québec (1623–1708)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 11, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Francis-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, commonly referred to as François de Laval, was considered the founder of the Catholic faith in New France. He was a French Catholic prelate who served as Apostolic Vicar of New France from 1658 to 1674. In 1674, he was given the diocese, making him the first bishop of Quebec. He held this position until he retired due to poor health in 1688. He continued to work in New France until his death in 1708.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “François de Laval” as first Catholic bishop of Québec (1623–1708). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around François, Laval and First.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1658, 1674, 1688, 1708—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with François, Laval and First providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “François de Laval”, the useful work is to connect “first Catholic bishop of Québec (1623–1708)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1658, 1674, 1688 and 1708.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow François de Laval primary sources, François de Laval archive and François research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “François de Laval” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.