Antoine La Vallette

Who was Antoine La Vallette?

Antoine de Lavalette, was a French jesuit clergyman, Superior of the Martinique missions, whose bankruptcy led to the suppression of the Society of Jesus in France.

He became a member of the Society of Jesus in Toulouse, 10 October 1725, was ordained priest in 1740, and in 1741 sent as missionary to the island of Martinique. In 1754 he was named superior-general of all the Jesuit missions in the French possessions in Central and South America.

He was accused about the same time of engaging in commerce, contrary to the canon law, and summoned to Paris for trial; but his defense was undertaken by the authorities in Martinique, and the matter was allowed to drop for the time. His conduct afterward was one of the causes that led to the downfall of his order. His mission was heavily in debt, and to restore it to financial prosperity he made extensive purchases of land in Dominica, and engaged in various commercial ventures, borrowing large sums of money when these proved unsuccessful.

When Lorenzo Ricci, the Jesuit general, was informed of this, in 1757, he sent three visitors to Martinique, all of whom met with mishaps that prevented them from arriving.