Lucien Alexandre Beaudoin (1862 - 1917)

Born 12 Jan 1862 in Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan, L'Assomption, Québec, Canada

Died 19 Aug 1917 at age 55 in Hotel Dieu de Montreal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

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Biography

Franco-Ontarien

Né à Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan, le 12 janvier 1862, Lucien Beaudoin était le fils d’Alexis Beaudoin, marchand, et de RoseAnne Beaudry.

Il fit ses études classiques à l’Assomption, de 1873 à février 1881. Il étudia la médecine un an en 1881-1882 ; en 1882-1883, il vint en pension au collège, avec la soutane, comme maître de salles ; de 1883 à 1886, à l’Assomption, comme professeur en Éléments latins, en 1883-1884, en Syntaxe, en 1884-1885, et en Méthode, en 1885-1886, tout en étudiant la théologie.

Il fut ordonné à Montréal par Mgr Fabre, le 8 décembre 1886 et en 1886-1887 il devint professeur en Rhétorique au collège. Il fut premier aumonier des soeurs de la miséricorde à New York, de 1887-91.

En juin 1891, à l'invitation de l'évêque de London, Lucien Beaudoin prend en charge la jeune paroisse de Notre-Dame-du-Lac, à Walkerville, Essex, en Ontario, en tant que curé. Une poste qu'il conserva pendant plus de vingt cinq ans. Il fut un pasteur éveillé et courageux, il était partout à l’œuvre, du moment que le réclamaient les intérêts de son peuple. Il lui voulait une piété agissante et éclairée, une organisation puissante et de riches établissements religieux, et pour cela il ne regardait pas à la peine.

Le père Beaudoin savait que les écoles françaises jouaient un rôle essentiel dans le maintien de la langue et de la culture françaises. Il subventionna même, en grande partie à ses frais, la construction d'au moins trois écoles françaises dans le comté d'Essex: l'école Notre-Dame de Sandwich-Est, ouverte en avril 1894, ainsi que l'école St-Louis construite en 1895 pour les familles pauvres. vivant sur les rives du lac St Clair. Cependant, cette école fermerait suivant un litige impliquant les contribuables et les fiduciaires au sujet des taxes. Une troisième école, l'Ecole St-Edouard, ouvrira ses portes à Walkerville. En plus d'enseigner personnellement aux soeur religieuses anglophones irlandaises les bases de la langue française à utiliser dans les écoles bilingues, il faisait également des tournées régulières de ses écoles pour catéchiser les enfants en langue française. Enfin, en tant que pasteur, il a été président des conseils scolaires séparés de Sandwich East et de Walkerville. Beaudoin a également organisé les Petits Saint-Jean-Baptiste et les Cadets du Sacré-Cœur, deux organisations de jeunesses paroissiales qui ont participé à des processions d'églises visant à inculquer le patriotisme à la génération montante.

Quand Mgr Michael Francis Fallon devint évêque de London en 1909, le Père Beaudoin avait déjà acquis une très solide réputation en tant que défenseur de premier plan des droits d'éducation catholiques et des écoles bilingues dans le comté d'Essex. Sa stature et son zèle défieraient le nouvel évêque tout aussi franc, qui était parmi les opposants les plus avoués des écoles bilingues en Ontario.

En 1912, lorsque le gouvernement provincial de l'Ontario adopta le règlement 17, qui interdisait l'enseignement du français dans les écoles de l'Ontario, plusieurs membres du clergé francophone se révoltèrent contre l'évêque Mgr Fallon, qui défendait la position du gouvernement. L'abbé Lucien Beaudoin, de la paroisse Notre-Dame-du-Lac de Ford, devint la figure de proue et le symbole du mouvement de résistance contre le règlement 17 dans le comté d'Essex et les politiques de Mgr Fallon, devenant ainsi une des cibles de la vindicte de l'évêque. Il prêchait contre le nouveau règlement, et incitait ses paroissiens à ne pas perdre leur francais. Des années à militer contre le règlement 17, contestant la politique de l'évêque, combattant les réprimandes et les tribunaux diocésains, et étant constamment menacé de sanctions, prirent finalement le dessus sur le Père Beaudoin, et malheureusement précipitèrent la fin de ses jours. Gravement malade et paralysé par la phlébite, le père Beaudoin fit ses tournée paroissiales et de ses écoles en béquilles jusqu'à ce qu'il subisse un accident vasculaire cérébral au cours de l'été 1917. Forcé en convalescence à l'hôpital Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, le Père Beaudoin est décédé subitement le 19 août 1917 et fut enterré dans la crypte du Collège Assomption. Conformément à ses dernières volontés, son cœur fut enterré dans la crypte de son église de Walkerville, où il avait fidèlement servi comme curé pendant plus de 25 ans, puis fut finalement enterré dans le cimetière Notre-Dame-du-Lac.

Rev L. A. Beaudoin was born in 1862 in St-Roch-de-l'Achigan, Assumption county, Québec. He was educated at Assumption College, Québec. He studied medicine for two years and took out his medical degree. In 1883 he began preparing for the priesthood at Assumption college, where he taught Latin and Greek for three years. He saw at least 30 of his pupils elevated to the priesthood and at least one raised to the episcopate. He was ordained priest on December 8, 1886. In 1888 he became first chaplain of the Misericordia Hospital in New York City. In June 1891 at the invitation of the Bishop of London, Ontario, Beaudoin took over the young parish of Our Lady of the Lake {Notre Dame du Lac), in Walkerville, Essex, Ontario. A position he kept for twenty five years.

Rev Beaudoin knew that French schools played a critical role in maintaining the French language and culture. He even subsidized, largely at his own expense, the building of at least 3 French schools in Essex county: Ecole Notre Dame in Sandwich East , which opened in April 1894, and Ecole St-Louis, which was built in 1895 for poor fishing families living on the shores of Lake St Clair. This school, however would temporarily close over a dispute involving the ratepayers and trustees over taxes. A third school, Ecole St-Edouard, would open in Walkerville, In addition, to personally teaching his English-speaking nuns the foundation of the French language to use in the bilingual schools. Beaudoin also made regular rounds of his schools to catechize the children in the French language. Finally, as pastor, he served as president of the Sandwich East and Walkerville Roman Catholic Separate School Boards. Beaudoin also organized the Petits St. Jean Baptiste and the Cadets de Sacre Coeur, two parish youth organizations to participate in church processions aimed at instilling patriotism in the upcoming generation.

By the time Mgr Michael Francis Fallon became Bishop of London in 1909, Beaudoin had already established a solid reputation as a leading defender of Catholic education rights and bilingual schools in Essex County. His stature and zeal would challenge the equally outspoken new bishop, who was among the most avowed opponents of the bilingual schools for Ontario.

In 1912, however, the Ontario provincial government passed Bill 17, which forbade the teaching of French in Ontario schools. Several members of the local French clergy rebelled against bishop Mgr Fallon, who championed the government's position. Father Lucien Beaudoin, from Our Lady of the Lake parish in Ford City, became the spearhead and the symbol for the resistance movement against Bill 17 and Mgr Fallon's policies, and in the process became one the targets of the Bishop's vindictiveness. Years of campaigning against Bill 17, challenging the bishop's policies, fighting diocesan reprimands and tribunals, and constantly being threatened with sanctions, finally took their toll. Seriously ill, and crippled by phlebitis, Father Beaudoin made his rounds on crutches until he suffered a stroke in the summer of 1917. Forced to convalesce at Hotel Dieu hospital in Montreal, Fr. Beaudoin died suddenly on 19 Aug 1917, and was buried in the Crypt at Assomption College. In accordance with his last wishes, his heart was buried in the crypt of his church in Walkerville, where he had faithfully served for 25 years, then eventually buried in Our Lady of the Lake Cemetery.

His conflict with Mgr Fallon on the french separate school question, his death, and subsequent replacement named by Mgr Fallon precipitated the Battle of Ford City.

On August 22, 1917, hundreds of French Canadian parishioners mourning the death of their nationalist pastor, Fr. Lucien Alexandre Beaudoin, formed a blockade refusing to admit their newly appointed priest, Fr. François Xavier Laurendeau, on the pretext that they believed he was in favour of the provincial school policy, Regulation XVII, which had severely restricted the use of French in the area's bilingual schools. For more than two weeks, the parishioners mounted an around the clock blockade refusing the priest`s admission to the parish grounds and residence. On September 3, the Catholic Bishop of London, Michael Francis Fallon, sent the parishioners an ultimatum: accept the new priest or face the closure of the church. The warning failed to produce any results. On Saturday, September 8, 1917, Fr. Laurendeau returned to the parish with a police escort of 12 constables. The protesters, who were tipped off by a phone call of their pastor`s impending return, rang the church bells, and the grounds were soon occupied by more than 3000 parishioners. When Laurendeau and his police escort arrived they faced a sizeable blockade. The police escort pulled out their billy clubs to make their path through the crowd. Amid the pushing, shoving and shouting, someone threw the first blow and a full-scale riot broke out. Through a shower of bricks, rocks, fists, brooms and clubs, the constables managed to reach the church residence. The mayor, Albert Maisonville was forced to read the Riot Act and call upon the military for back up. When the riot finally settled down, nine men had been arrested, and nine people had been seriously injured, including two elderly women who fiercely resisted the policy on the front steps of the church rectory with broomsticks. For more than a year, the parishioners boycotted masses celebrated by Laurendeau and appealed to Pope Benedict XV to replace him. In October 1918, the Vatican ordered the parishioners to accept the new pastor under pain of excommunication, ending the boycott. These events came to represent the culmination of the French-speaking community`s resistance to Bishop Fallon and his vocal support of the Ontario Government`s imposition of Regulation 17. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_City,_Ontario)

Sources

• Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968; Registre Paroisse de L'Assomption, L'Assomption, Québec.

• Census of Canada, 1871. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, n.d.. RG31-C-1. Statistics Canada Fonds. Microfilm reels: C-9888 to C-9975, C-9977 to C-10097, C-10344 to C-10388, C-10390 to C-10395, to C-10540 to C-10570. Year: 1871; Census Place: St Roch, L'Assomption, Quebec; Roll: C-10034; Page: x; Family No: 119; Listing: Alexis Beaudoin, wife: Rose-Anne, Children: Lucien, Stéphanie, Amanda, Gustave, et Mélanie.

• Fascicule 0-41 de L’Association des anciens et des anciennes du Collège de l’Assomption; Les membres du 41e cours (1873-1881-1896); publié mars 2015 https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2371767?docref=F9sJdbERLL3JAB8IJnd8tg

• http://collections.banq.qc.ca/bitstream/52327/2022769/1/196581-1.pdf Le Clergé Canadien-francais

• http://ink.scholarsportal.info/viewer/cecil/focus/ink/newspapers/wer/reel56/00665-x0-y0-z1-r0-0-0?q= The Windsor Evening Record 6 nov 1911 page 1

• https://archive.org/stream/WindsorDirectory18971898/Windsor%20Directory%201897-1898#page/n139/mode/2up Windsor Directory 1897 1898 by Union Publishing Co. of Ingersoll; Directory for Windsor, Walkerville, and Sandwich for 1897-1898. Publication date 1897.

• https://archive.org/stream/WindsorDirectory1910/Windsor%20Directory%201910#page/n367/mode/2up Windsor Directory including Walkerville and Sandwich, 1910, by Union Publishing Co. of Ingersoll.

• http://www.uwindsor.ca/sites/uwindsor.ca.dailynews/files/450_lucienbeaudoin.jpeg

• http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/002/NR38993.PDF

• https://ojs.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/HRG/article/viewFile/361/313

• http://ink.scholarsportal.info/viewer/cecil/focus/ink/newspapers/wer/reel83/00765-x0-y0-z1-r0-0-0 Obituary The Evening Record, Windsor, Ontario, Monday 20 Aug 1917, pg 1

• http://ink.scholarsportal.info/viewer/cecil/focus/ink/newspapers/wer/reel84/00004-x0-y0-z1-r0-0-0 The Evening Record, Windsor, Ontario, Tuesday 21 Aug 1917, pg 2

• http://ink.scholarsportal.info/viewer/cecil/focus/ink/newspapers/wer/reel84/00011-x0-y0-z1-r0-0-0 The Evening Record, 22 aug 1917, pg 1, Successor to Fr. Beaudoin named

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168554371/lucien-alexandre-beaudoin : accessed 9 February 2022), memorial page for Rev Fr Lucien Alexandre Beaudoin (12 Jan 1862–19 Aug 1917), Find a Grave Memorial ID 168554371, citing Our Lady of the Lake Cemetery, Windsor, Essex County, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Ron Martin (contributor 47581225) .

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/189944440/lucien-alexandre-beaudoin : accessed 9 February 2022), memorial page for Rev Fr Lucien Alexandre Beaudoin (12 Jan 1862–19 Aug 1917), Find a Grave Memorial ID 189944440, citing Collège de L'Assomption, L'Assomption, Lanaudiere Region, Quebec, Canada ; Maintained by Gilles Caron (contributor 48516724) .

• http://geneofun.on.ca/names/photo/1033947