Gabriel Thubières de Levy de Queylus

Gabriel Thubières de Levy de Queylus, S.S. (1612 – 20 May 1677), was a Sulpician priest from France, who was a significant leader in the development of New France. He was the founder and first superior of the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Montreal.

De Queylus, as he was known during his life, was born in 1612 in Privezac, in the ancient Province of Rouergue in the Kingdom of France, a son of a wealthy nobleman. Destined for service in the Church, at the age of 11 he was made the commendatory abbot of the Abbey of Loc-Dieu, giving him the lifelong title of abbé. Choosing late in his life to pursue the priesthood, he studied at a seminary in the village of Vaugirard, now the Quartier Saint-Lambert in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. He was ordained a priest on 15 April 1645. In July of that year, he joined the Society of Saint-Sulpice, dedicated to the sound training of a clergy for France and her territories. That same year, independently, he joined the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, an organization dedicated to the conversion of the people of the First Nations in the recently conquered territory of New France.

Almost immediately after his admission to the Society, Queylus gained the trust of its founder, Jean-Jacques Olier, whom he might have known from their mutual alma mater. Olier soon entrusted him with the task of establishing new seminaries in the format which he had instituted in 1641 in founding the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice, Paris. Within a few year, De Queylus has established seminaries in his native region of Rodez (1647), as well as in Nantes (1649) and Viviers (1650). In 1648, moreover, he was briefly made superior of the motherhouse of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. Two years later, Queylus settled in the Vivarais, as the pastor of Privas, site of the final rebellion of the Huguenots in France. He worked to convert the remaining Huguenot population to the Catholic faith. He also established a Sulpician seminary at Clermont in 1656. Shortly after that, he was suddenly recalled to Paris.

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