Postmarks generally bear the name of the city or town of original. A number of these place names have with a noteworthy connection to Jesuits.

Blessed José de Anchieta, SJ
(1534-1597)

BRAZIL, 1985, postmark from Anchieta, in the state of Espirito Santo

Bishop John Carroll
(1735-1815)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, postmark from Carrolltown, Pennsylvania

Carrolltown, Pennsylvania owes its name to Fr. Henry Lemke, OSB and the Priest-Prince Demetrius Gallitzin (More), who insisted that the town Lemke founded at his church be named for Bishop John Carroll (1735-1815), the first bishop of the hierarchy of the United States, and the first Bishop and Archbishop of Baltimore, Maryland. Carroll entered the Jesuits in 1753. He continued his priestly ministry when the Society was suppressed in 1773. In 1784 he became Superior of the Missions in the new USA and was appointed bishop five years later. More

Fr. Joseph M. Cataldo, SJ
The Last of the Blackrobes
(1837-1928)

 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1908, postmark from Cataldo, Idaho
1990, special cancel for the centennial of the state of Idaho, featuring the Mission of the Sacred Heart,
built by Fr. Ravalli, the oldest standing building in Idaho.

The town of Cataldo began with the Cataldo Mission, 25 miles east of Coeur d'Alene, started to serve the Coeur d'Alene Indians, who were very spiritual and sent words that the "black robes", Jesuit priests, would be welcome among their people. So in the early 1840s, Jesuit missionaries came to North Idaho. The Italian Jesuit Father Anthony Ravalli came in 1848 and he and two brothers built the church. The mission was later named Cataldo, after Father Joseph M. Cataldo, who arrived in 1877 and made his headquarters here when he was made superior of all the Rocky Mountain Missions. He founded Gonzaga University in 1887. More

René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle
Explorer
(1643-1687)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1990, postmark from La Salle, Colorado
name for René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle, former Jesuit

Father Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, SJ
(1682-1761)

 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, postmark from Charlevoix, Michigan
CANADA, postmark from the St. Urbain in the Charlevoix region of Quebec, Canada

Charlevoix, Michigan, once known as Pine River, is named for the Jesuit historian Fr. Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, SJ (1682-1761), as are its lake and county and the Charlevoix region of Canada. Charlevoix was born at Saint-Quentin, France, and entered the Jesuits in 1698. He taught philosophy and the humanities, and left for the Canadian missions in 1720. Among many travels he explored from Quebec, though Mackinac, Michigan, Illinois, and down to the mouth of the Mississippi. After a shipwreck in Mexico, he went to Haiti and returned to France in 1722, worked there on various apostolates including 22 years at the Journal de Trévoux. Among his many volumes of worldwide history is the Histoire de la Nouvelle-France. He died at la Flèche in February of 1761. More

Charlevoix region in Quebec, Canada covers a territory of 6,000 square kilometers and is located in the heart of the Laurentian shield (the oldest soil on earth). It has a population of 30,000.

Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, SJ
(1801-1873)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, postmark from Desmet, Idaho

At the invitation of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet, SJ sent Jesuits who set up a mission in what is now Desmet, Idaho. Between 1848 and 1853 they built the Old Mission church -- the oldest standing building in the state of Idaho, and "the cradle of the Catholic Church" in that region of North America. The Old Mission is still there, but the parish moved to what is now Coeur d'Alene within the Coeur d'Alene Reservation.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, postmark from De Smet, South Dakota

De Smet, South Dakota is the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House on the Prairie series, whose father came to the area in 1879 to work for a railroad camp. The town, formed the next Spring, was named for Fr. Pierre-Jean De Smet, SJ, a Jesuit missionary who spent his life among the Sioux Indians. A statue in his honor stands in the city's Washington Park.

Saint Alberto Hurtado, SJ
(1901-1952)

  
CHILE, 1994, postmarks from Padre Hurtado, Región Metropolitana, a city of about 34,000 inhabitants

Saint Stanislaus Kostka, SJ
(1550-1568)

CANADA, 1988, CDS and Roller Bar cancel for Saint-Stanlislaus-de-Kosta, Province of Quebec, Canada,
named in honor of St. Stanislaus Kostka, SJ

Saint Ignatius Loyola, SJ
(1491-1556)

SPAIN, 1982, postmark from Loyola, site of Loyola castle, the birthplace of St. Ignatius

 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1983, 2005, postmarks from Saint Ignace, Michigan and St. Ignatius, Montana

  
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, St. Ignatius, Montana appears on these and other precancelled stamps

Saint Ignace, Michigan was originally a mission established by Jesuit missionary and explorer Fr. Jacques Marquette, SJ at the Straits of Mackinac in 1671. He named it after St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit Order. It was from St. Ignace that Marquette and Joliet set out two years later to cross Lake Michigan to what is now Wisconsin, and then to descend the Mississippi River until they realized it flowed into the Gulf and was not a shortcut to China. Marquette spent a couple of years in Wisconsin and Illinois and died on his way back to St. Ignace

St. Ignatius, Montana, 32 miles north of Missoula, the site of the St. Ignatius Mission, a National Historic Site, was founded in 1854 by Jesuit missionary priests, Peter DeSmet, SJ and Adrian Hoecken, SJ, who led the Kalispel Indians from the first St. Ignatius Mission in Washington to this new site in Montana. The town grew up around the mission, both of them named for the founder of the Jesuits. More

    
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, postmark from Saint Inigoes, Maryland
BRITISH HONDURAS and BELIZE, 1983, postmark from San Ignacio, in British Honduras which since 1973 is Belize
CHILE, 1994, postmark from San Ignacio, in the Region of Bío-Bío, a city of about 13,500 people

Saint Inigoes, Maryland takes its name from a Jesuit manor and from St. Ignatius for whom the manor was named. In 1636 the Jesuits acquired extensive property not far from St. Mary's City, the first capital of Maryland. They built on that property what came to be called St. Inigoes Manor, the house apparently named after Ignatius' original name, Inigo. When penal laws in 1705 closed the church of St. Ignatius in St. Mary's City and forbad public Roman Catholic services, St. Inigoes Manor became the center of Catholic worship. In 1788, when the law was relaxed, a public church was built nearby and dedicated once again in honor of St. Ignatius Loyola. More

Father Jacques Marquette, SJ
(1637-1675)

 

  
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1932, postmark from Marquette, Michigan
a DPO bulk rate precancel from Dukes in Marquette county, Michigan
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Marquette, Michigan appears on these and other precancelled stamps

The city of Marquette, Michigan was begun in 1849 and named first after the community of Worcester, Massachusetts, but the name was changed on August 21, 1859 to Marquette in honor of Father Jacques Marquette, SJ. The name of the city's county and other sites are also named after the noted priest-explorer.

  
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2007, postmarks from Marquette, Iowa; Marquette Nebraska; and Marquette, Wisconsin

 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,1950 naval cover postmark from the USS Marquette (AKA 95) ThisAndromeda Class Attack Cargo Ship [AKA] that served from 1945 to 1955 was probably named for the county, and so only indirectly for the Jesuit missionary.
CANADA, 2000, postmark from Marquette, Manitoba

 

 

Saint Francis Xavier, SJ
(1506-1552)

  
SPAIN, 1982 and 1991, postmarks from Javier, Navarra
site of the Xavier castle, the birth place of Francis Xavier
SPAIN, 2006, postmark from San Javier in Murcia

 
SPAIN, 1973, postmark from San Javier for the 20th World Military Aeronautical Pentathlon Championship
at the Murcia-San Javier Airport in San Javier, which is primarily military and the home the the Spanish Aeronautical School.
SPAIN, postmarked April 7, 2006, the 500th anniversaryof the birth of Francis Xavier from "Sangüesa Javier"
a combination postmark since the town of Sangüesa is about 5 miles from the village and castle of Javier

San Javier, Spain, with a population just over 20,000, is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Murcia, very near the border with Alicante province, just off the coast of the Mar Menor. It is the location of the San Javier International Airport, a military air base and passenger facility.

San Javier in the Misiones Province in the NE of Argentina is the capital of the Department of San Javier in that Province. Jesuits founded this San Javier in 1743 as a reduction in the land of the Mocovíes Indians.is on the banks of the San Javier River in Santa Fe Province (SF). Argentina also has a San Javier Department in the Cordoba and Santa Fe Provinces.

San Javier and Yacanto, also in Argentina. is result of the division of the Estancia of Yacanto, at the end of the 17th century. Situated in the valley of Traslasierra, at the foot of Champaquí mountain (2.880 m.) in the Comechingones range, it originated around the chapel of San Francisco Javier of Yacanto.

San Javier, Chile, is a city of 20,000 people located in the wine country.

 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, postmark from St. Xavier, Montana
URUGUAY, 2006, postmark from San Javier, Uruguay.

San Javier, Uruguay is a town with many Russian emigrants in the Río Negro department. It was founded in 1913, Uruguay's first agriculural colony, by Russians in search of greater religious freedom. It was here the Uruguayan military executed Vladimir Roslik, now a national hero.

St. Xavier, Montana, USA, was officially established as the first mission for the Crow Indians in 1887 by Jesuit missionary, Fr. Peter Paul. Prando, SJ (d. 1906). The church, dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, is still in use and the school, affiliated with the St. Labre Mission School, also continues to operate. More

General

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, postmark from Church Point, Louisiana

In 1848, the Jesuits of Grand Coteau were asked to establish a church in a settlement where they had been coming for some time to offer Mass in a private home. They bought land on a bend in Bayou Plaquemine and set up the first Catholic church in the Acadia Parish area. The place became known as La Chapelle de la Pointe de Plaquemine Brulee, anglicized Church Point. The first post office here (1873) was consequently named Church Point, Louisiana, and the town was incorporated in 1899 under the same name.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1995, special ancel for the tricentennial of Cross Village, Michigan

Cross Village is one of the oldest settlements in Michigan and today is known for its ties to the Native American Ottawa tribe. As late as 1787, as many as twenty tribes populated the region and met here around tribal council fires. Jesuits came here in the early 1600s and Father Jacques Marquette is said to have planted the original huge white cross on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan before his death in 1675. Today, a replica of his cross stands at the edge of the bluff and is visible from far off shore. The Native Americans called the village Anamiewatigoing (At the Tree of Prayer, or Cross). The name La Croix (The Cross) was used from 1847 to 1875 when it was changed to Cross Village.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, postmark from De Pere, Wisconsin

Father Claude Allouez, SJ, around 1670 opened a chapel dedicated to St. Francis Xavier in an Indian village where today stands the town of De Pere, Wisconsin. The town sipposedly takes its name from the nearby cataracts on the Fox River, which the French Jesuits, impressed with the severity of the current, called the Rapides des Peres (Rapids of the Fathers), although the former name of the town was Père Marquette.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1930, postmark from Holy Cross, Territory of Alaska

The name "Holy Cross" was given to this church and mission by its Jesuit founder, Fr. Aloysius Robaut, SJ. It was founded in 1888 and is located 279 miles upriver from the Bering Sea on the right bank of the Yukon. Holy Cross' long Catholic history began with a little two story log cabin mission, originally intended as a Jesuit house, but soon the cabin became a convent, and the convent a boarding school. By the time the boarding school closed in 1956, some 95 Jesuits had served on this mission. More

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1931, postmark from Jesuit Bend, Louisiana

Jesuit Father Paul du Ru, SJ settled on this site at a bend in the river in the late 1690's, where he built the first church in Louisiana out of wild cane walls and a palmetto roof. Later arrivals brought sugar cane from the Jesuit plantations in Santo Domingo, introducing the crop that would become the basis of Louisiana's agricultural economy. The Jesuits still run an old farm there growing sugar cane and oranges. The post office closed in 1931.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2005, postmark from Priest River, Idaho

Priest River, Idaho (the town), and the nearby Priest River (the river) and Priest Lake are related. Fr. Peter De Smet in 1846 christened the lake Roothan Lake to honor his Jesuit superior general. A nearby mountain still bears the name Roothan. The lake was later Priest Lake, honoring Jesuit missionaries in general rather than the one Jesuit General. The name of river and town followed suit.

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