Émile-Joseph Legal (October 9, 1849 – March 10, 1920) was born in France and went to

Lachine, Quebec Lachine () is a borough (''arrondissement'') within the city of Montreal on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It was founded as a trading post in 1669. Developing into a parish and then an autonomous city, it was Montreal m ...

, where he was ordained a

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' re ...

in the

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest later recognized as a Catholic saint. The congregation wa ...

order in 1880. Legal worked briefly in the United States where he studied to acquire a knowledge of English. He was sent as a missionary to the Canadian northwest in 1881. He arrived at St. Albert,

North-West Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of the three territories in Northern Canada. Its estimated pop ...

(NWT), and was sent to carry out missionary work with the

Northern Peigan The Piikani Nation (, formerly the Peigan Nation) (, ) is a First Nation (or an Indian band as defined by the ''Indian Act''), representing the Indigenous people in Canada known as the Northern Piikani (, ) or simply the Peigan ( or ). Histo ...

Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'', or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bl ...

people as well as pastoral duties in

Fort Macleod Fort Macleod ( ) is a town in southern Alberta, Canada. It was originally named Macleod to distinguish it from the North-West Mounted Police barracks (Fort Macleod, built 1874) it had grown around. The fort was named in honour of the then List o ...

, NWT, to take over from Father

Constantine Scollen Father Con Scollen OMI. (4 April 1841 – 8 November 1902) was an Ireland, Irish Catholic, Missionary priest who lived among and evangelized the Blackfoot, Cree and Métis peoples on the Canadian Prairies and in northern Montana in the United S ...

, who had established the first mission to the Blackfoot people of the southern North-West Territory in 1873, along with Father Leon Doucet, near

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, NWT. He was made a bishop in 1897 and bishop of St. Albert in 1902 on the death of Bishop

Vital-Justin Grandin Vital-Justin Grandin (8 February 1829 – 3 June 1902) was a Roman Catholic priest and bishop. He has been labelled as a key architect of the Canadian Indian residential school system by contemporary news sources, which has been considered an i ...

. In 1905, the province of

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

was created out of the NWT, and in 1912 the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton The Archdiocese of Edmonton () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese in the Canadian civil province of Alberta and the seat of its archbishop is at St. Joseph Cathedral (Edmonton), St. Joseph Cathedral, a minor basilica in Edm ...

was created, with Legal made archbishop on the 30th of November. The town of Legal, Alberta, is named in his honour.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Canada 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Canada French emigrants to Canada Pre-Confederation Alberta people 1849 births 1920 deaths Roman Catholic archbishops of Edmonton Franco-Albertan people Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate {{Canada-RC-archbishop-stub