| Mgr Marcel-François Richard |
|
 On April 9, 1847, the parish of Saint-Louis-de-Kent became the birthplace of a farmer’s son who was to become the famous Monsignor Marcel-François Richard, also known as the Father of the Acadians. His name was to echo his actions as a courageous builder of communities and churches, believer in education and Acadie.
Through his leadership at the first two Acadian national conventions and his participation in the committees’ deliberations, he gave the Acadian people three symbols which define it to this day: a national holiday, a flag and an anthem.
He played an important role in education by founding in Saint-Louis-de-Kent and Rogersville convents and colleges which were to serve to educate young Acadians in French.
Ordained as a priest on July 31, 1870, he became vicar, then parish priest in his native village. He remained there until 1885, when he was sent to Rogersville. He was still at the service of that parish when he was named domestic prelate in 1905, an honour that allowed him the title of Monsignor.
Throughout his life, Marcel-François Richard worked tirelessly toward “Acadian survival”. For him, this rested on two main foundations: education and colonisation. He therefore founded educational institutions so that young Acadians could study in their native tongue and he encouraged the construction of approximately 50 schools during his career.
He encouraged new lands to be developed and saw to it that Acadians who lived there had the benefit from churches and chapels.
It is during the Acadian national conventions that his passion for “Acadian survival” became ever apparent. He became the catalyst for the creation of the symbols that define the Acadian people to this day.
The intensity of his work, as well as the diverse aspects of his activities toward “Acadian survival” between 1870 and 1890, also brought him to reflect on the means to ensure its long-term survival. For him, such survival required the naming of an Acadian bishop and, ideally, the creation of a francophone diocese. With this purpose in mind, he travelled to Rome three times, twice between 1907 and 1910, in an effort to heighten the Pope’s awareness to his cause. He had the pleasure of witnessing the naming of the first Acadian bishop in 1912, but he died before the founding of the first francophone diocese in 1936.
In 2004, he was designated Person of national historic significance by the Government of Canada.
|
