Alexandre-Antonin Taché

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada
BuriedSt. Boniface Cathedral Cemetery
NationalityCanadian
DenominationRoman Catholic
ParentsCharles Taché and Louise-Henriette de Labroquerie
OccupationMissionary and Archbishop
ProfessionCleric
Alma materGrand Seminaire, Montreal, Quebec

Alexandre-Antonin Taché,

Saint Boniface in Manitoba, Canada.[2][3]

Early life

Alexandre-Antonin Taché was born in

Province of Lower Canada (now Quebec), on 23 July 1823,[4] to a merchant named Charles Taché, and Louise-Henriette de Labroquerie, a descendant of the famed explorers Louis Jolliet and Gaultier de Varennes. When his father died in January 1826, the widowed Louise-Henriette was forced to return to her family home in Boucherville.[1]
The young Alexandre was raised there under the care of his uncle, in a home where the arts, study, and the Catholic faith were part of the daily fabric of life.

He attended the

ordination
.

There, Taché made a strong impression on the staff and on Bishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal. Before he had even completed his theological studies, the bishop appointed him Regent of the College of Chambly,[1] and in January 1844 as professor of mathematics at his old school in Saint-Hyacinthe. Since his meeting the newly arrived community of Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate from France in December 1841, Taché had felt drawn to their way of life. When he completed his seminary studies in 1844, he began to consider joining the congregation, feeling a desire to preach to the people of the West, who had been made known to the French colony by the explorations of his own ancestors. Despite the objections of his family (with the exception of his mother), he entered the Oblate novitiate in Longueuil in the fall of that year.

Oblate missionary

Taché soon expressed an urge to preach to the Native American population of the west.

Vicar Apostolic of the Northwest Territories
.

Provencher ordained Taché a deacon a week later and a priest on 12 October 1845.

Athabaskan
.

Bishop

In 1847 the

Eugene de Mazenod
, founder of the Missionary Oblates. Provencher died on 7 June 1853, and Taché automatically succeeded him as the Bishop of St. Boniface.

The following years saw Taché serving a widespread region of which about half of the population were Catholics. He worked with a number of groups including the

Emile Petitot who went to Canada with him in 1862. In the unrest among the Métis people in the political process, he was called upon by the federal government to act as its representative to avoid the possibility of a civil war. He was even called back by them from Rome in 1870, where he was participating in the First Vatican Council,[1] to reach out to Métis leaders who were leading a rebellion against the Canadian government. However, the Oblate policy of encouraging Catholic families to settle in the homeland of the Metis and First Nations peoples meant that he had little influence and he was unable to prevent the Riel Rebellion of 1885.[6]

In September 1871, the Holy See raised the status of the diocese to that of archdiocese, and Taché became the first Archbishop of St. Boniface. He was keen to encourage Catholic families to settle in the North West and from 1872 used Fr Albert Lacombe and Fr Doucet as a recruiter of families from Eastern Canada and the United States[1] and later Europe.

Taché regarded Manitoba as a sister province of Quebec, and promoted French Canadian immigration and the linguistic and educational rights of French-speaking Catholics in the Northwest. Taché was involved in the controversy surrounding the suppression of French as an official language and the abolition of confessional schools in Manitoba and he wrote many pamphlets and letters denouncing this legislation.[4]

Taché died in Saint Boniface on 22 June 1894, following 15 years of declining health, and was buried in the St. Boniface Cathedral Cemetery.[2][3] Named in his honour are the Rural Municipality of Taché, Tache Hall at the University of Manitoba, a cairn in La Verendrye Park in Winnipeg, and Tache Avenue in Saint Boniface.[2]

Publications

Taché wrote many books,[7] including;

  • Vingt Années de Missions Dans le Nord-Ouest de L'Amérique (1866)[5]
  • Écoles Séparées: Partie des Négociations A Ottawa en (1870)
  • Sketch of the North West of America (1870)[8]
  • L’amnistie (1874)[9]
  • A Page of the History of the Schools in Manitoba During 75 Years, (1893)[10]
  • The "Good Fight" and the Illusive Vision[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Biographi Canada website, Taché, Alexandre-Antonin
  2. ^ a b c "Memorable Manitobans: Alexandre-Antonin Taché (1823-1894)". www.mhs.mb.ca. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  3. ^ a b Carriere, Gaston (4 March 2015). "Alexandre-Antonin Taché". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  4. ^ a b Plains Humanities website, Taché, Alexandre-Antonin (1823-1894
  5. ^ a b New Advent website, Alexandre-Antonin Taché
  6. ^ Government of Canada website, Designations of National Historic Significance section, Taché, Alexandre-Antonin National Historic Person
  7. ^ Encyclopedia website, Taché, Alexandre-Antoni
  8. ^ Google Books website, Sketch of the North West of America (online copy)
  9. ^ Google Play Store website, L’amnistie
  10. ^ GoodReads website, Alexandre-Antonin Taché
  11. ^ ABE Books website, The "Good Fight" and the Illusive Vision

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about Alexandre-Antonin Taché.
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