08/10/2026
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/jean-francois-st-cosme-missionary-and-martyr-5410 CHICAGO HISTORY LEAD TO CAHOKIA & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamaroa_people THERE IS A VILLAGE TAMAROA NEAR REND LAKE .... ! ---> While traveling down the Illinois, St. Cosme visited several Indian villages where the Jesuit Fathers who were preaching the gospel to the natives. He found that the mission of the Illinois Indians was the finest that the Jesuit Fathers had in the area. He reported that many of the Indians had "abandoned all their superstitions and live as thoroughly good Christians; they frequently attend the sacraments and are married in church."
St. Cosme left the Jesuit missions in a party of four canoes on November 22 after breaking the ice to get out of Lake Peoria. One day after the departure they came to the cabin of Rouenssas, "the most notable of the Illinois chiefs and a very good Christian. He received us with politeness, not of a savage but of a well-bred Frenchman." Rouenssas was given gifts with which to establish an alliance with his tribe. The desire of each tribe with which he visited to monopolize the relationship with the missionaries led them to give St. Cosme warnings that he should go no further because of the hostile intent of the tribes further downstream. Despite urgings to the contrary, the party proceeded south, reaching the Mississippi on December 5. The Mississippi was described as "a fine, large river flowing from the north. It divides into several channels at the spot where the River of the Illinois falls into it, forming very beautiful islands." On December 6 they came to the junction of the Mississippi with the Missouri "which flows from the west, and is so muddy that it dirties the waters of the Mississippi, which until they meet that river are very clear." They camped with the Kaouchias who did not seem to be so evil intentioned or so wicked as some Illinois savages had sought to have them believe. On December 6, St. Cosme and his party reached the village of the Tamarois, a spot which would earn him a lasting place in the history of the evangelization of North America. On the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1698, St. Cosme said the first mass at what would become the mission of Sainte-Famille. After celebrating mass, St. Cosme and his party left the Tamarois on the afternoon of the eighth. Traveling down river, he mentions landmarks believed to be in Perry County, Missouri. He relates the passage of a rock about one hundred feet high which was said to create dangerous whirlpools during high water. This feature is now known as Tower Rock, and, on occasion, by other names, including Rock of St. Cosme. In keeping with the natives’ custom of offering sacrifice after a successful passage of the rock, St. Cosme and his party ascended the rock and planted "a fine cross on it, chanting the hymn Vexilla Regis, while our people fired three discharges from their guns." He expressed the wish that "God grant that the Cross, that has never been known in this place, may triumph here, and that our Lord may abundantly spread the merits of His Holy Passion, so that all these savages may know and serve him." St. Cosme returned to the Tamaroas at Cahokia in April, 1699. He established the mission of Sainte- Famille, which is now recognized as the founding of the settlement of Cahokia, Illinois. The intention was that the mission would provide a link between the seminary in Quebec and the missions farther down river. The church had barely been completed in May when a challenge to St. Cosme’s ministry arrived in the person of Father Julien Bineteau. The arrival of Father Bineteau brought to the fore the rivalry between the Jesuits and the Missionaries of Seminary of Quebec in the Illinois country. The Jesuits claimed the right to establish the mission among the Tamaroas due to the establishment of missions at a village about two hundred twenty miles away and the "flying missions" which they had conducted when the Tamaroas came to the Jesuit outpost of Pimitoui or during seasonal migrations. The Jesuits challenged the validity of the commission of Bishop Saint-Vallier to the directors of the Seminary of Quebec to establish a mission among the Tamaroas. Father Bineteau actively interfered with the mission of Father St. Cosme, attempting to prevent him from learning the native languages. Jesuit Father Jacques Gravier forbade St. Cosme to continue his ministry to either the natives or the French. When Father Marc Bergier arrived at Sainte-Famille, Saint Cosme pursued his mission further down river, leaving Cahokia for good in July, 1700. He replaced Father de Montigny among the Natchez, becoming the first French settler in the area of Natchez. From there on, Saint-Cosme’s mission met with little success. His poor facility for learning their languages and the low density of population were formidible obstacles. It may also be that, by this time, he had formed a low opinion of his charges. In letters he called for servants "capable of standing up to the most wicked Indian" and observed that "it is awkward for a missionary to have to punch an Indian." St. Cosme’s mission ended during a trip down the Mississippi toward Mobile in late 1706. In the vicinity of what is now Donaldsonville, Louisiana, St. Cosme and his three companions were shot to death by arrows for the Chitimacha Indians. Father St. Cosme thus became the first North American native priest to be killed in the mission fields. https://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2016/03/1803-thomas-jefferson-acquiring.html
