News and Culture
After 250 Years, Abanaki Village Repoens Its Portals - Waterville Sentinel, 1974
Norridgewock Massacre: Dreams, Inspirations, Tragedy - Mainely Local, 1984
Walking in the Footsteps of a Martyr - Harvest Magazine, 2017
The tragic story of Father Rasle at Kennebec Historical Society - May, 2018
Pilgrimage to the Father Rasle Monument - UMF Fisheaters, 2018
Norridgewock
A song about the 1724 Norridgewock massacre in which Fr. Rale and dozens of native Americans were killed.
By the Gunther Brown Band, 2016
Father Sebastien Rale, S.J., A Letter to His Brother
From The Many Islands: Poems by William Goodreau
Athanaeum 1961
This epic poem draws on excerpts from a letter Fr. Rale wrote to his brother to bring out the drama of Fr. Rale’s story. The tale, while not unsympathetic to Fr. Rale, tends to except the judgment and claims of English historians about Fr. Rale’s character and motives. These are characterizations I would dispute, but the poem is nevertheless worth reading. You can find it here.
A stamp from the Madison-Anson Days, August 27th, 1988
Fr. Rale Days
Interest in Fr. Rale is not recent and seems to bubble up periodically. In the 1970’s, a man by the name of Arthur Grenier labored hard to make Fr. Rale better known and even built a replica of the village and created a museum near the site. Unfortunately, most of it has been lost, but newspaper articles still survive to attest to his labors and some of his findings. For more on Arthur Grenier and Fr. Rale Days see the article from the Waterville Sentinel in 1974 and Mainely Local in 1984.