Occupation Priest and bishop Religion Roman Catholic | Name Vital-Justin Grandin Role Bishop | |
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Born 8 February 1829 ( 1829-02-08 ) Saint-Pierre-sur-Orthe, France Died June 3, 1902, St. Albert, Canada People also search for Norbert Provencher, Marie-Anne Gaboury, Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiere, Rosario Couture | ||
Vital-Justin Grandin (8 February 1829 – 3 June 1902) was a Roman Catholic priest and bishop who served the Church in the western parts of what is now Canada both before and after Confederation.
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Early life
Grandin was born in Saint-Pierre-sur-Orthe, France, on 8 February 1829. He was the ninth son in a family of fourteen children of Jean Grandin and Marie Veillard. He was ordained as a priest in 1854; one month later he was sent by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate to Canada to perform missionary work in what was then Rupert's Land. Upon arrival he was sent to Saint-Boniface, where Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché was in charge. Grandin was subsequently assigned to a mission at Fort Chipewyan (now in Alberta). He next served at Île-à-la-Crosse (now in Saskatchewan) for a number of years.
Life as bishop
In 1867, Taché proposed that the vicariate of Saskatchewan be formed with Grandin as vicar of missions. This took place in 1868; in the same year, Grandin attended the council of Quebec bishops in 1868 to discuss new religious boundaries in the Canadian northwest. As a result of these discussions, St. Boniface was elevated and the suffragan diocese of St Albert was created. In 1871, Vital-Justin Grandin was appointed bishop.
Grandin was an early supporter of the Canadian Indian residential school system believing that the best way to civilize Indigenous peoples was to educate the young. In 1880 he wrote a letter to then Public Works Minister Hector-Louis Langevin explaining that boarding schools were the best way to ensure children "forget the customs, habits & language of their ancestors".
Grandin was never completely healthy; he had been a sickly child and also had a speech impediment, and his health deteriorated during his later years. He did however preside over the development and expansion of the Diocese of St. Albert, including the founding of new missions and churches throughout Alberta and the construction of hospitals and schools which, unusually for the time, were administered by members of female religious orders and lay clergy. Grandin's efforts to increase Francophone settlement in Alberta were less successful, but many francophone communities founded at the behest of Grandin (such as Beaumont, Lacombe, and Morinville) still exist in central and Northern Alberta.
Bishop Grandin died in office on 3 June 1902. He was declared venerable by the Roman Catholic Church in 1966.
Upon his death, Grandin was succeeded by Bishop Émile-Joseph Legal in the St. Albert diocese.