XVIII-WIECZNE OBRAZY MISJI KATOLICKICH W AMERYCE PÓŁNOCNEJ – MIĘDZY TRADYCYJNĄ POBOŻNOŚCIĄ A OŚWIECENIOWĄ KRYTYKĄ
18th Century Images of Catholic Missions in North America – between Traditional Devotion and Enlightenment Criticism

Summary/Abstract: Catholic missions in the 18th century went through a period of crisis. The article focuses on missionary activity in French and British colonial North America and examines the modalities of its growth and decline. Political upheavals, especially the British conquest of French colonies and the American Revolution have had various consequences for the Catholic missions. In the rst case, the fall of New France, combined with the dissolution of the Jesuit order, resulted in the temporary discontinuation of missionary activity. On the other had the creation of the United States of America allowed the Catholics to develop their institutions and the diocesan structures. Selected contemporary descriptions of the missionary work and of the society in North America are examined in the second part of the article. They include a portion of Jesuit’s Lettres édi antes et curieuses and Raynal’s Histoire des deux Indes. The images of popular piety, which was promoted among the Indians, are confronted with some aspects of the secular re ection on new American society, typical of the age of Enlightenment. Such combination leads to a better assessment of the notion of the 18th-century crisis of missionary activity in North America.

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