Black Robe

"Black Robe" is the story of one Jesuit priest, Father Laforgue, and his struggle within this profound conflict. It is a story that conveys with powerful honesty and intelligence, the fear, hostility and despair between the Jesuits and the Indians a clash of cultures that eventually resulted in the destruction and abandonment of the Jesuit missions, and the conquest of the Huron people by the Iroquois, their deadly enemy, and which is still shaping the tidal flow of Canadian life today. Father Laforgue is a rigid and driven man with dreams of martyrdom. He ventures on a harrowing journey to an isolated mission to "reap a great harvest of souls". He takes with him Daniel, a young French carpenter who acts as his translator. Laforgue and Daniel are accompanied by a band of Algonquins led by the regal chief Chomina. Laforgue experiences a spiritual crisis during the journey. He feels his beliefs challenged by the chief's powerful dream and spirit religion. Daniel falls in love with the chief's breathtakingly beautiful daughter Annuka, and Laforgue is tormented with lust and guilt inspired by the natural lovemaking of the young couple. The journey is plagued by hardships and deprivations, and bloody confrontations with the Iroquois people. In the end, it is Laforgue whose beliefs undergo a conversion.