Jean-Mandé Sigogne

Sigogne, Jean-Mandé

Jean-Mandé Sigogne, Roman Catholic missionary (b at Beaulieu-les-Loches, France 6 Apr 1763; d at Sainte-Marie [Church Point], NS 9 Nov 1844). Forced in 1792 to flee persecution in revolutionary France, he came by way of England to southwestern NS in 1799 as missionary to the ACADIANS of 2 widely separated missions. He was authoritarian by temperament and a moral rigorist, and this, coupled with his being the only man among them both learned and fluent in English, gave Sigogne an ascendancy over temporal and spiritual affairs. His most substantive legacy was the survival of the French and Catholic traditions among the Acadians of Digby and Yarmouth counties, to whom he ministered for 45 years.