Jean-Charles Prince (13 February 1804 – 5 May 1860) was a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
Roman Catholic priest, teacher, seminary administrator, editor, and
Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe,
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...
from 1852 to 1860.
Life
Jean-Charles Prince was born 13 February 1804 at Saint-Grégoire (
Bécancour), Lower Canada to Jean and Rosalie Bourg Prince. His father was a farmer. He attended the minor Séminaire de Nicolet from 1813 to 1822, when he began his studies for the priesthood. He taught rhetoric and the humanities while still a seminarian. On 23 September 1826 he was ordained. Prince then became secretary to
Jean-Jacques Lartigue
Jean-Jacques Lartigue, S.S., (20 June 1777 – 19 April 1840) was a Canadian Sulpician, who served as the first Catholic Bishop of Montreal.
Early life
Lartigue was born to a noted Montreal family, the only son of Jacques Larthigue, a surg ...
, an auxiliary bishop of the
Diocese of Quebec and vicar general for Montreal.
[Beaudoin, o.m.i., Yvon. "Prince, Bishop Jean-Charles", Oblates of Mary Immaculate]
/ref> Father Prince was also appointed chaplain of Saint-Jacques Cathedral, Bishop Lartigue's cathedral seat.
In 1831, Prince was made director of the major seminary, the Collège de Saint-Hyacinthe, a position he held until 1840. In addition to his regular duties, Prince also taught theology and served as prefect of studies. Attempting to maintain neutrality during the political unrest at the time was challenging. Following the battles of Saint-Denis and Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu
Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu is a municipality in southwestern Quebec, Canada, on the Richelieu River
The Richelieu River () is a river of Quebec, Canada, and a major right-bank tributary of the St. Lawrence River. It rises at Lake Champla ...
in 1837, the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe sheltered for a few days 200 soldiers and six officers, while also hiding two Patriote leaders on the run. Prince was obliged to assert on more than one occasion that the institution was entirely neutral.[Fahmy-Eid, Nadia. “Prince, Jean-Charles”, ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003]
/ref>
In April 1840 Bishop Lartigue died and was succeeded by his coadjutor Ignace Bourget
Ignace Bourget (October 30, 1799 – June 8, 1885) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest who held the title of Bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876. Born in Lévis, Quebec, in 1799, Bourget entered the clergy at an early age, undertook several cou ...
as Bishop of Montreal.Bruchési, Paul. "Ignace Bourget." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907 Bishop Bourget brought Prince to Montreal to establish the ''Mélanges religieux'', a Catholic newspaper. Prince remained in charge of the newspaper until November 1843. His other duties included serving as a canon at the cathedral, and as chaplain to the Montreal Asylum for Aged and Infirm Women. He helped to train the novices who were to form the Daughters of Charity, Servants of the Poor, and was chief chaplain to the Congregation of Notre-Dame and the Religious Hospitallers of St Joseph
The Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph (RHSJ; french: Religieuses Hospitalières de Saint-Joseph) are a Catholic religious congregation founded in 1636 at La Flèche, France, by the Venerable Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière and the Venera ...
of the Hôtel-Dieu in Montreal. He accompanied a group of Hospitallers to Kingston, Upper Canada, at the request of the bishop there, Rémi Gaulin
Rémi Gaulin (30 June 1787 – 8 May 1857) was a Roman Catholic priest and bishop who spent time in the service of Bishop Joseph-Octave Plessis. Plessis ordained Gaulin in 1811 and appointed him curate to Alexander MacDonell in Upper Canada ...
. Prince left for Kingston on 19 November and stayed a year. As well as helping the sisters get settled, he ministered to the French Canadians of the region and studied English.[
On July 5, 1844, ]Pope Gregory XVI
Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He h ...
appointed him titular bishop of Martyropolis and coadjutor of Montreal. During a pastoral visit to Bytown
Bytown is the former name of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded on September 26, 1826, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1850, and superseded by the incorporation of the City of Ottawa on January 1, 1855. The founding was marked by a Grou ...
in 1846, the bishop blessed the chapel of Notre-Dame de Bon Secours, which had been built in Hull for the purpose of ministering to the woodcutters.[ On June 29, 1851, he laid the first stone of the church of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre.]Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...
the acts of the first provincial council of Montreal.
Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe
Bishop Prince brought the French Sisters of the Presentation of Mary
The Sisters of the Presentation of Mary are a religious congregation in the Latin Rite branch of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1796 at Thueyts in the Ardèche department of south-central France, by Saint Anne-Marie Rivier (1768–1838); ...
and the Dominicans to his diocese.[ Bishop Prince died on May 5, 1860.
]
See also
References
External links
Catholic-Hierarchy entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince, Jean-Charles
1804 births
1860 deaths
19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Canada
Roman Catholic bishops of Saint-Hyacinthe