Jean de Quen (May in Amiens, France – 8 October 1659, in Quebec City) was a French Jesuit missionary, priest and historian. As head of Jesuit missions of New France, he founded the missions to Saguenay. In 1647, Jean de Quen was the first European to reach the shores of Piékouagami (Lac Saint-Jean). Early life Born , in Amiens, Picardie, Jean de Quen was about 17-years-old when he joined the Jesuits on 13 September 1620. He taught for three years at the Collège in Eu, and then left for New France. He arrived at Quebec on 17 August 1635, where he taught at the College of Quebec, which opened that same year for French and First Nations boys. He taught there for two years before joining the Sillery mission, an initiative aimed at educating the native peoples. He later left the mission and went back to Quebec to minister to the parish of Notre-Dame-de-la-Recouvrance. After a fire destroyed the school, chapel and, Jesuits’ residence in 1640, he resumed his service in Sillery before moving on to a Trois-Rivières post, where he was involved in the establishing another mission. In 1640, he went back to Sillery, and concerned himself with the hospital, Hôtel-Dieu. There he wore himself down; he recovered quickly, and was sent to the Trois-Rivières residence. He returned the following year to Sillery, and was in charge of that mission centre for eight years (1642–49). He fulfilled a very active ministry there, which brought him into contact with First Nations individuals from multiple locations, more particularly Montagnais people, whose language he learned with proficiency. Tadoussac In the spring of 1642, Jean de Quen was entrusted with the Montagnais mission, with which he concerned himself for 11 years. This mission had been founded the preceding year at Tadoussac, where between spring and the end of August the fur trade brought First Nations people from all parts of the vast territory of the Saguenay. Father de Quen was respected by the Montagnais; with the aid of Fathers Jacques Buteux, Gabriel Druillettes, Martin de Lyonne, and Charles Albanel, he created a form of summer mission suited to the existence of these nomadic peoples, and made it successful. He formed a nucleus of Christians whom helped him to reach the most distant groups. It was at Tadoussac that the first stone church in Quebec was constructed, in 1646. Lac Saint-Jean No European had