PROVENCHER, BISHOP NORBERT (232 ENGLISH -- 231 fran)

PROVENCHER, BISHOP NORBERT (232 ENGLISH  -- 231 fran)


NORBERT SON of Jean-Baptiste + Elizabeth Proulx
                   N.   1787-02-12  Nicolet, Qc
      ORD. SAC. 1811-12-21 Nicolet, QC
         SACRE EVEQUE - 1820 - St-Boniface, MB 
                 D.  1853-06-06  St-Boniface, MB

                              BISHOP NORBERT PROVENCHER   

                          --------------------------------  


In July 1818, Father Norbert Provencher and his companion, Father Sévère Dumoulin, arrived in Manitoba at the exact spot which we know today as St. Boniface. They were pleased to meet Anne-Marie Gaboury, the only catholic woman in this immense diocese.  In a few weeks the priests baptized about 100 Métis whose mothers were not catholic at this point.

In 1820, Norbert Provencher was consecrated as the titular or incumbent bishop of Juliapolis and named coadjutor of the Bishop of Quebec for the North-West territories.  His diocese was the largest in the world.  I’m unsure of the number of square miles it represented, but it began at the Great Lakes on the east to the Rocky Mountains, then from the American border to the North Pole, which meant that when a missionary baptized a child, for example a child of François Beaulieu and his spouse Catherine, this baptism was registered in the Quebec registries.  Furthermore when in 1818, Father Provencher baptized about 100 children in the St. Boniface region, including the children of Marie-Anne Gaboury, and she being  the only catholic woman in this immense region, all these records are in the Diocese of Quebec.

Bishop Provencher wanted to have a congregation of religious nuns to work in his diocese; during more than 20 years, he was not successful in this.  But in the autumn of 1843, he went to Montreal but before leaving he once again begged the Lord to help him.  His prayer this time went somewhat like this:  “Lord, you know that it is very important that we have religious nuns for the many residents here: the sick, the children, the poor mothers who need mid-wives, etc.”  Once in Montreal (population about 15,000), he went to Bishop Bourget (and perhaps to many others). Someone suggested that he go to the Grey Nuns “for they never refuse anyone.”  The following spring, five Grey Nuns left for St. Boniface, Manitoba.  As soon as they arrived, the nuns visited the sick and the dying, in their tents, and began to teach the young children.  One of Marie-Anne Gaboury’s granddaughters had become a Grey Nun and had already been stationed since  1873 at Ile à la Crosse. Ile à la Crosse was the second mission of the Grey Nuns in the West.  It had been a very good suggestion that Bishop Provencher had received to go to the Grey Nuns for help. The Grey Nuns remained in St. Boniface for 140 years (1844-1984).  They founded many convents, hospitals, schools, etc.  in the Canadian West right up to the Arctic.

When the region of the North-West became a diocese, in 1847, Bishop Provencher became the first bishop of the diocese which became known in 1850 as St. Boniface.

1 - PROVENCHER, Sébastien + Marguerite Manchon  m. 1663  en FRANCE

2 - PROVENCHER, Sébastien + Marie Massé  m. 1694-08-22  Not. Ameau

3 - PROVENCHER, Jn-Bte + M-Jeanne Lefebvre  m. 1737-03-05  Baie-du-Febvre

4 - PROVENCHER, Jean-Bte + Elisabeth Proulx  m. 1776-11-04  Baie-du-Fèbvre

5 - PROVENCHER, Mgr. Norbert...