Thomas-Étienne Hamel (b.

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

, December 28, 1830; d. Quebec City, July 16, 1913) was a

French-Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the prov ...

priest and academic. He was the son of Victor Hamel, a merchant and Therèse DeFoy. In 1852, as a student of the

Séminaire de Québec The Seminary of Quebec (French: , ) is a Catholic Church, Catholic community of Secular clergy, diocesan priests in Quebec City founded by Bishop François de Laval, the first bishop of New France in 1663. History The Séminaire de Québec is ...

, he traveled with

Louis-Jacques Casault Louis-Jacques Casault (17 July 1808 – 5 May 1862) was a Canadian priest, academic, superior of the Séminaire de Québec, and rector of Université Laval. Born in Saint-Thomas-de-Montmagny, Lower Canada, the son of Louis Casault and Françoise ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

where they arranged for the royal charter of what would become

Laval University Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxe ...

. After his ordination in 1854, he was sent to Paris' École des Carmes and eventually graduated from the Sorbonne with a license in science, before returning to Quebec to teach at the Séminaire, also acquiring the office of general secretary of the new university. He became rector of the

and

(1871–1880, 1883–1886, librarian from 1888) and a founder as well as a president (1886–1887) of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

. He was

Vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

of the

Archdiocese of Quebec The Archdiocese of Québec (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest episcopal see in the New World north of Mexico and the primatial see of Canada. The Archdioce ...

from 1871 and appointed an apostolic prothonotary in 1886. In 1881, he led a delegation to Rome to argue against the independence of the Montreal branch (which would ultimately become the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

). Hamel wrote a biography of

Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau (; February 17, 1820 – April 12, 1898) was a Canadian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Quebec from 1871 until his death in 1898. The first Canadian cardinal, he was elevated to the ...

(''Le Premier Cardinal Canadien'', 1888) and a manual of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

(''Un Cours d'éloquence parlée d'après Delsarte'', 1906). His contributions to the study of the

Music of Quebec As a cosmopolitan province, Quebec is a home to various genres of music, ranging from folk to hip hop. Music has played an important role in Quebecer culture. In the 1920s and 1930s, singer/songwriter Madam Bolduc performed comedic songs in a ...

, notably his ''Annales musicales du Petit-Cap'' (an unpublished compilation of folk songs preserved at the Séminaire), have been little studied. Although an entry for him was intended for inclusion in the ''

Dictionary of Canadian Biography The ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'' (''DCB''; ) is a dictionary of biographical entries for individuals who have contributed to the history of Canada. The ''DCB'', which was initiated in 1959, is a collaboration between the University of Toro ...

'', it was never included for unknown reasons, and no definitive biography of him exists.Beckwith, p. 3.

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamel, Thomas-Etienne 1830 births 1913 deaths University of Paris alumni Rectors of Université Laval 19th-century Canadian Roman Catholic priests People from Quebec City Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Apostolic pronotaries Academic staff of Université Laval