Father Sebastian Rasle was a Jesuit missionary among the Abneki people of what is now Norridgewock, Maine. With his death, the Abneki left the area for New France.
I grew up in a tiny little Maine town on the Kennebec River called Norridgewock. Now, if you are not from Maine you probably have never heard of the Kennebec or Norridgewock. And you probably have never heard of Father Rasle (or Father Râle) of which there is a monument and a road named after. But Father Rasle and the humble beginnings of a Jesuit mission at Norridgewock, Maine reach back hundreds of years, to Western European roots and Counter-Reformation Zeal and the Society of Jesus. The rise and fall of the mission at Norridgewock reflect not just a religious matter, it was highly charged political issue, ulitmately leading to the murder of Father Rasle and the loss of lands by the Abenki people.
