Tag: Toronto

Bishop de Charbonnel, Second Bishop of Toronto. By Monsignor Vincent Foy

 Bishop de Charbonnel, Second Bishop of Toronto

By Monsignor Vincent Foy

Bishop Michael Power, first bishop of Toronto, died of typhus on October 1st, 1847. The first choice of a bishop to succeed him was Fr. John Larkin, an English priest who had been a professor at the Grand Seminary in Montreal. In 1840 he severed his relations with the Sulpicians and became a Jesuit. The Bulls of his appointment were issued in 1848 but Fr. Larkin refused to accept them.

The second choice for Toronto was that great and holy churchman Armand Francis Marie, Comte de Charbonnel. He belonged to a distinguished family whose titles went back to the second crusade in the twelfth century. His father saved the two daughters of Louis XV, aunts of Louis XVI, by arranging their escape from France during the Revolution.

Bishop de Charbonnel had been trained at the Sulpician Seminary in Paris, and was ordained in 1825. He was for a time professor of Dogma and Holy Scripture at Lyons. In 1833 he prevented a riot at Lyons and was offered the Cross of the Legion of Honor, which he refused. He came to Montreal in 1839 and two years later went for a year to Baltimore to learn English. It is of interest that he gave the priests’ retreat in Toronto in 1845. During the typhus epidemic of 1847 he worked tirelessly among the sick and was stricken himself. He was at death’s door for some time. On his recovery he returned to France.

Bishop de Charbonnel was named bishop of Toronto on March 15, 1850. He went to Rome and begged the Holy Father to withdraw his appointment, but the Holy Father insisted and so he was consecrated bishop by Pope Pius IX on Trinity Sunday, May 26, 1850, in the Sistine Chapel.

Arriving in Toronto on Sept. 21, 1850, Bishop de Charbonnel took formal possession of his See on the following Sunday. At that time there were 8000 Catholics in Toronto in a population of 30,000. There were two Churches: St. Paul’s and the Cathedral, served by three priests: Frs. Carroll, Harkin and Fitzgerald. There was one religious community: the Sisters of Loretto.

Among the many problems he faced, the new bishop found that there was a heavy debt on St. Michael’s.  The cathedral was still largely unfurnished, with bare white walls and plain glass windows. The bishop retired one mortgage of over $10,000 with his personal funds, all he possessed. There was another debt of about $60,000. To help reduce this debt the bishop visited many places in Canada and the U.S. asking for help for the poor diocese of Toronto.

With great zeal and perseverance Bishop de Charbonnel laboured for the spiritual needs of the diocese. In 1851 he brought from Philadelphia four Sisters of St. Joseph, to take care of the orphans, the poor and the aged. He wrote in 1852: “These Sisters of charity have charge of 55 orphans, visit the sick and help the poor”. In 1856 began the building of the House of Providence. In 1851 also, he brought to Toronto four Christian Brothers to take charge of the Separate Schools. In 1852 he brought from France four Basilian Fathers, the mustard seed which was to develop into St. Michael’s College.

It can be truthfully said that we owe our Separate School system to Bishop de Charbonnel. He fought vigorously and persistently for justice for our Catholic schools. One injustice was that if there was even one Catholic teacher in a public school, the Separate School in that area was forced to close. Dr. Egerton Ryerson, Superintendent of Schools, predicted that by this means Catholic Schools in Upper Canada would cease to exist. Bishop de Charbonnel was instrumental in getting this injustice removed, but others remained. An interesting account of Bishop de Charbonnel’s crusade for Catholic education is a chapter entitled “The Growth of Separate Schools” in “The Municipality of Toronto, a History”, Vol. 2, The Dominion Publishing Co., Toronto, 1923.

Part of the immense burden on Bishop de Charbonnel was lifted when the diocese of London was created in 1855, and the diocese of Hamilton in 1856.

Long hoping to live a more contemplative life and believing that Toronto would be better served by a bishop whose first language was English, Bishop de Charbonnel felt his prayers and petitions were answered when Father John Joseph Lynch, President of the College of Holy Angels, Niagara Falls, was chosen and consecrated coadjutor on November 20, 1859. Bishop de Carbonnel resigned his See on April 26, 1860, and was named Bishop of Sozopolis. Shortly after he returned to France.

It is commonly thought that when he resigned as bishop of Toronto, Bishop de Charbonnel retired to a monastery for the rest of his life. One account reads: “Bishop de Charbonnel, who for many years had longed for the silence and tranquility of monastic life, tendered his resignation to Pius IX and entered the austere Order of the Capuchins. He died, almost a nonagerian, in 1891”, (“Canada and Its Provinces”, Publishers’ Association of Canada, Ltd., 1914, Vol. X1, p.61).

The facts are somewhat different. The bishop entered the Capuchins and after his novitiate was sent to Lyons. There he was entrusted with the work of promoting the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Later he was appointed Auxiliary to the Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons. He conducted more than fifty priest retreats, besides those to religious communities, missions in parishes, confirmations in six dioceses and ordinations in Lyons and Annonay. He represented his Archbishop at the first Vatican Council and while in Rome was named Archbishop of Sozopolis by Pope Leo XIII.

Archbishop de Charbonnel continued his active labours until he was 85. Then he devoted himself to prayer and to hearing confessions in the Capuchin monastery at Crest. The Golden Jubilee volume of Toronto Archdiocese gives this account of his death: “The end came and found him still at work. On Holy Saturday, when he had spent several hours in the confessional, he was taken ill. On the following day, Easter Sunday, March 29, 1891, the soul of this venerable, saintly prelate passed to its reward for the long and useful life worn out in the glory of God and the salvation of his neighbour”. There at Crest he was buried in the monastery vault.

In Toronto, the Sisters of St. Joseph have not forgotten the founder of the House of Providence. In a corridor of the Providence Health Centre is a picture of their early Superiors who devoted their lives to the poor and disabled and aged. At the beginning of this group of venerable Sisters is a picture of Bishop de Charbonnel. We also ought to remember him, for all of us owe a debt of gratitude to this holy prelate. In the midst of all his problems in Toronto, he kept his peace and even spiritual joy. He wrote while in Toronto: “If I could laugh in English as well as I can in French, my gaiety would be excessive”.

Two Notable Priests. By Monsignor Vincent Foy

Two Notable Priests

by Msgr. Vincent Foy, P.H., J.C.D.

 Toronto Archdiocese can boast many talented, dedicated and holy priests whose lives are now almost forgotten. It seems right to remember them and recall with gratitude their priesthood among us.

In 1923 a large two-volume work was published by the Dominion Publishing Co. in Toronto entitled “The Municipality of Toronto – a History”. It contains a number of items of interest to Catholics. In Vol. II we find “Biographical Sketches of Eminent Citizens”. Two priests are mentioned. Since the 1923 volumes are now rare it seems appropriate to reprint here the sketches of the lives of two of our priests.

Rev. Dean Harris, Litt.D.

In 1870 Dean Harris was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic church, and in St.Michael’s Cathedral, Toronto, on June 10, 1920, hundreds of citizens, including men in his ecclesiastical position and in humble walks of life gathered about him in the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Three years later he passed away, and Toronto mourned the loss of an eminent citizen.

Rev. Dean Harris was born in Cork, Ireland, March 3, 1845, was brought to Canada by his parents at an early age, and died in St.Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, March 5, 1923, at the age of seventy-eight years. He was educated at St. Michael’s College, Toronto, and later was a student at the College of the Propaganda, Rome, Italy, where in 1870 he was ordained to the priesthood. He also received the degree of Litt.D. from the Universities of Toronto, and Laval, and also was honored by the University of Ottawa. In the earliest years of his ministry he was rector of St. Adjala  in Ontario.

In 1875 Rev. Dean Harris was made rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral, Toronto, and after a number of years there became dean of the Deanery of St. Catharines. He served as dean until ill health caused his resignation, then traveled extensively. He visited the Azores, Spain, Portugal, the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and South America, where he explored the ancient Spanish ruins. Later he resided for a time in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he edited the “Intermountain Monthly”, and wrote a “History of the Catholic Church in Utah”.

Rev. Dean Harris was the author of several historical essays and also was author and publisher of “Days and Nights in the Tropics”. “By Path and Trail; a Book of Southern Travel”, and “The Catholic Church in the Niagara Peninsula”. In 1912, he returned to Toronto and accepted the chaplaincy of St.John’s Industrial School. Later he published “The Cross-bearers of the Sagueny”. In recognition of his valuable contribution to archaeological research Rev. Dean Harris, in 1919, was elected president  of the Ontario Archaeological Society”.

Rev. James B. Dollard.

Rev James B. Dollard is one of the most distinguished lyric poets of the day, whose residence in this country must be regarded as fortunate for the cause of Canadian letters, though he is not a native of this country. He was born in Kilkenny county, Ireland, on August 30, 1872, the son of Michael Dollard, a farmer and Anastasia (Quinn) Dollard. He was not without Canadian connections, however, since a great uncle, Bishop Dollard, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, had had a distinguished career in the Roman Catholic Church in this country. His early education was received in Kilkenny, and he later qualified for admission to the priesthood at the Grand Seminary, Montreal, Canada. He holds the scholastic degrees of Bachelor of Theology, Bachelor of Canon Law, and Doctor of Letters (Laval University). He was ordained as a priest in 1896, and his later years have been spent in the city of Toronto, where he is now parish priest of St. Monica’s Church, Forty-four Broadway avenue. Despite the duties of a hard-working clergyman, zealous for the welfare of his parish, he has employed his leisure in literary activity which has won him fame on both sides of the Atlantic.

He has published three volumes of poems and one book of short stories. His literary work is nearly all Irish in theme and inspiration, for he has never forgotten the happy days he spent as a lad in the beautiful isle that holds the enduring love of so many patriots, whose duties have called them far from its shores. The growth of his fame as a lyric poet is the more notable in that he is of modest, retiring nature and has never sought publicity of any kind. Irish legend and Irish scenery are woven by him into the most delicate and rhythmical verse, verse that is instinct with music and alive with lovely imagery.

One tribute to him from the pen of the late Joyce Kilmer, himself a poet of distinction, and prior to his death with the American troops at Chateau Thierry, the literary critic of the “New York Times”, may be quoted. Of the poem “Fairy Anvils”, which appeared in the volume entitled, “Irish Lyrics and Ballads”, Kilmer wrote: “Here is some genuine Celtic magic-a beautiful blend of melody and fancy. It should be set to music-the words almost carry a tune with them- and sung by John McCormack”. The same tribute could be paid to many other lyrics by Father Dollard.  He is a member of the Poetry Society of America and of the Arts and Letters Club, Toronto”.

In his later years Father Dollard, as Msgr. Dollard, served as parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes parish, Toronto.. He died on April 28, 1946.