While Métis people hold diverse spiritual beliefs, many Métis in the Upper Great Lakes—
like other Métis communities throughout the Métis Nation Homeland—practiced the Catholic faith.
An 1893 visitor to Killarney, for example, described the community as consisting of “many half breeds at Killarney, mostly French and Roman Catholic, and there is a small Roman Catholic church.”
With few churches in the Upper Great Lakes during the early 1800s, Métis travelled long distances to practice their faith, get married, baptize their children, and witness such events for family and friends.
During that period, the Ste. Croix Catholic church at on Manitoulin Island was an important gathering place for Catholic Métis. Visiting priests recorded many baptisms and marriages of Métis from across Georgian Bay, Killarney, and Sault Ste. Marie in the Ste. Croix church register.
Ste. Croix drew Métis from all around the Upper Great Lakes. In 1842, for instance, Métis couple John Corbiere and Marie Madeline Nolin of Sault Ste. Marie were married at Ste. Croix, with Charles Lamorandiere of Killarney as their witness.
In 1871, Robert Sayer's daughter, Rose Delima Sayer, was baptized at Ste. Croix with Marianne Corbiere of Killarney as her godmother.
Such events highlight the deep kinship ties between Killarney and Sault Ste. Marie’s Métis families.
As the Catholic community grew in the Upper Great Lakes, so did the need for a resident clergy. Beginning in the 1830s, Father Jean-Baptiste Proulx moved between Penetanguishene, Killarney, and Sault Ste. Marie to serve the predominately Métis Catholic community in the Upper Great Lakes corridor.
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