Pierre-Paul Durieu

Pierre-Paul Durieu OMI (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ pɔl dyʁjø]; December 3, 1830 – June 1, 1899), was a Roman Catholic missionary and the first Bishop of New Westminster, in British Columbia, Canada.

Durieu was born in 1830 in Saint-Pal-de-Mons, the second son of Blaise Durieux and Mariette Bayle, a farming family who had sheltered the clergy during the French Revolution.

Pierre-Paul felt called to serve in the foreign missions and entered the novitiate of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate at Notre-Dame-de-l'Osier on 31 October 1848.

He wrote a book of biblical stories in Chinook Jargon in order to teach the Catholic faith to the native peoples under his care, and set up mission centers where they could keep their nomadic traditions but be reached by the missionaries.

He attempted to secure treaties with the Canadian government to protect the rights of the peoples of the First Nations against the growing encroachments of the white settlers, to no avail.