Many of Michigan’s earliest European settlements were established by Jesuit missionaries; St. Ignace among them. Learn who the missionaries were and the places they established as Br. Jim Boynton, SJ shares the history of the Jesuits influence in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  

Click here to register for this free in-person program.

Br. Jim Boynton, SJ teaches at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School. A native of St. Ignace, Michigan, he is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Jim worked as a historical interpreter at the Straits of Mackinac before joining the Society of Jesus in 1987.

As a Jesuit, he has taught in India, Cleveland, Detroit, Mexico, and Haiti. For ten years, he also served as vocation director for the Midwest Jesuits. When not in the classroom, Jim can be found in the woods of Northern Michigan or playing the fiddle in a country band. His love for Michigan’s “Up North” led Jim to write Fishers of Men: the Jesuit Mission at Mackinac 1670-1765.

This program is sponsored by the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Library and Museum Services, and the St. Ignace Area Community Foundation.