This month I read an excellent new historical fiction work from the good folks at Arx Publishing entitled Catherine of the Erie, about the life of Catherine Gandeaktena, the Erie convert who founded the Saint-François-Xavier mission at Prairie-de-la-Magdelaine (Kentake) in Quebec in 1667. Catherine of the Erie is authored by the erudite Claudio Salvucci, a name well-known in traditional Catholic circles. Claudio has produced many excellent books and essays over the years on a rich diversity of subjects, though he is especially known for his voluminous knowledgea on the Jesuit missions of French Canada and the Catholic Native American communities they established. One of the greatest things Claudio ever produced—in concert with Tony Schiavo of Arx—was a modern reproduction of the Jesuit Relations in English. The Relations were a set of annual reports, published from 1632 to 1673, written by Jesuit missionaries in New France which detailed their missionary endeavors.
