Association des Richard du N.-B.

Descendants et amis de Michel Richard dit Sansoucy

Mgr Marcel-François Richard

Father of the Acadians

Mgr Marcel-François Richard (April 9, 1847 – June 18, 1915) was a Catholic priest and Canadian pedagogue1. He played an important role in the development of the Acadian people. Born in Saint-Louis-de-Kent, New Brunswick (son of Pierre-Luc Richard and Marie Tharsile Bariault), he studied in public schools and then at Saint-Dunstan College in Charlottetown. He completed his classical studies before doing his theology at the major seminary of Montreal. In 1870 he was ordained priest by Bishop Peter McIntyre at the age of twenty-three. Appointed curate in his native parish, he will then serve as pastor of the parish and surrounding services for the next fifteen years. In Saint-Louis-de-Kent, Father Richard’s main concern was education. In 1874, he invited the congregation Notre-Dame de Montréal to settle in the region. A convent is built for the popular education for women, nuns and teachers  
A bilingual school offering a commercial course and a preparatory course was built by him for young Acadians in 1874. This school will become the Saint-Louis College a few years later. The director of the institution, Father Eugène Biron, however, disagrees with Bishop Diocesan Bishop Rogers. The quarrel was resolved in 1892 following the response of the prefect of propaganda Giovanni Simeoni. In 1885, Bishop James Rogers sent Marcel-François Richard to the Rogersville Mission. At which, he began to get involved in Acadian national societies and collaborated at the Memramcook Acadian National Convention. He then founded the parish of Acadieville. He even borrowed to save Rogersville and Acadieville from ruin after the bad harvests of 1884 and 1885.
Throughout his ecclesiastical career, Father Marcel-François Richard was a tireless builder of churches, chapels, presbyteries, schools, convents, sawmills, in addition to having been at the origin of the Lourdes grotto in Saint-Louis, the Saint-Louis school, the Notre-Dame de l’Assomption monument in Rogersville and the Trappist monastery in the same village. It is said that he would have built or contributed to the construction of 14 churches and chapels, the first being the church of Acadieville in 1873. Here are some of them:
  • Immaculate Conception Parish Church of Acadieville built in 1873
  • Church of Saint-Louis-des Franâis de Saint-Louis, built in 1876 and destroyed by fire in 1974
  • Parish Church of Saint-Charles-Vorrommée in Saint-Charles-de-Kent, built in the 1870s
  • Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Rosaire parish church in Rosaireville, built in 1914
  • Saint-François-de-Sales parish church in Rogersville, whose construction began in 1888
  • Church of the parish of Saint-Pic-X de Marcelville, built starting in 1913
  • St. Bartholomew’s Parish Church in Bass River, built in 1877
  • Parish church of Notre-Dame-de-Fatima in Colette, first church in 1914.

Within the Acadian movement, he is committed with Stanislas-Joseph Doucet and François-Xavier Cormier to decide that the Assumption celebration becomes the national holiday of the Acadian people. Some figures like Philéas-Frédéric Bourgeois and Pierre-Amand Landry had then favored the date of June 24, but the date of August 15 was finally chosen.

Marcel-François Richard is also the one who chose the Ave Maris Stella for the Acadian national anthem. In addition, it led to the adoption of the tri-colored star as the national flag of Acadia. Father Richard campaigned for more Acadian priests to be admitted to the episcopate in the dioceses of the Maritimes.

Mgr Marcel=Francois Richard = monument de Rogersville
Monument of Mgr Marcel-François Richard in Rogersville, N.B.
Monument de Marcel-Francois Richard à St-Louis-de-Kent
Monument of Mgr Marcel-François Richard in St-Louis-de-Kent, N.-B.

In 1912, he finally won the nomination of the first Acadian bishop, Édouard Alfred LeBlanc. His activism, however, displeased some Irish-Canadian prelates, who criticized him for putting too often the interests of the Acadian people before the interests of the universal Church, regardless of language or origin.

Nevertheless, Father Richard will have contributed much to the formation of Acadian national identity during the difficult period of survival. His contributions to education have earned him the nickname of Apostle of Education.

Marcel-François Richard died June 18, 1915, and was buried in Rogersville near the monument of Our Lady of the Assumption that he had created himself. In 1936, the diocese of Moncton was erected in the canonical territory of the Acadian people, in accordance with his wishes.

Sources:  Wikipedia and “Histoire du Drapeau Acadien” by Maurice Basque & André Duguay Genealogy:  Paul Richard

Acadian National Day – August 15th

The Acadian Flag

Biography

April 9th 1847

1854-1861

1861-1867

1867-1870

1870

1870-1874

1874

1877

1880

1881-1913

1884-1885

Sept. 1885

1902

1904

1905

1907-1908

1910

1912

1915

Birth of Marcel-François Richard in St-Louis

Marcel-François attends school in St-Louis.

Classical classes at St-Dunstan’s in Charlottetown

Seminary School in Montréal

On July 31, he was ordained by Bishop Peter McIntyre in Charlottetown. In September, he was appointed vicar for Father McGuirk in St-Louis. In December, the latter’s mental health having deteriorated, Father Richard was appointed parish priest of Saint-Louis, a position he held until his transfer to Rogersville in September 1885.

Long lawsuit brought by Father McGuirk. Despite the worries caused by this trial, Father Richard gave himself body and soul to the construction of churches, the founding of new parishes, and the management of a vast parish which at one point included Richibucto, St-Louis , St-Ignace, Bass River, Big Cove, Pointe-Sapin, Acadieville, Rogersville, Ste-Marguerite and Barnaby River.

Creation of the convent of St-Louis entrusted to the sisters of the Notre-Dame Congregation, then of the Académie St-Louis, which in 1877 became the Collège de St-Louis. The closure of St-Louis College in 1882 led Father Richard into a long struggle with Mgr Rogers, Bishop of Chatham.

First trip to Rome to obtain a French-speaking bishop

National Convention of French Canadians in Quebec

He played a key role in the national orientation conventions of the Acadians, when the bishop’s permission was not withdrawn. He was a great defender of colonization and fought to obtain a French-speaking bishop.

In 1881, he played a key role in the choice of August 15th as Acadian Day

In 1884, he played a key role in the choice of the Acadian Flag as well as the National Hymn – Ave Maris Stella

Famine in the Rogersville region. Father Richard goes into debt to save the colonists.

Appointed parish priest of Rogersville by Mgr Rogers.

Father Richard welcomes the Trappists and Eudists to Rogersville.

Welcomes the Trappistines and the Daughters of Jesus to Rogersville.

Appointed domestic prelate of Pope Pius X

Second trip to Rome to obtain a French-speaking bishop

Third trip to Rome to obtain a French-speaking bishop

Calice recu du pape Pie X en 1910

Chalice given to Mgr Marcel-François Richard by Pope Pius X in 1910

Blessing of the Notre-Dame de l’Assomption National Monument in Rogersville

Mgr Marcel-François died in Rogersville on June 18, 1915.

Images