Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Boniface

Last updated
Archdiocese of Saint Boniface

Archidioecesis Sancti Bonifacii
Archdiocese of Saint Boniface.jpg
Coat of Arms
Location
CountryFlag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada
Ecclesiastical province Saint Boniface
Population
- Catholics (including non-members)
112,620 (25.2%)
Information
Denomination Catholic
Sui iuris church Latin Church
Rite Roman Rite
Established1871
Cathedral Saint Boniface Cathedral
Current leadership
Pope Francis
Archbishop Albert LeGatt
Website
archsaintboniface.ca

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface (Latin : Archidioecesis Sancti Bonifacii) is a Latin archdiocese in part of the civil Province of Manitoba in Canada. Despite having no suffragan dioceses, the archdiocese is nominally metropolitan and is an ecclesiastical province by itself. It is currently led by Archbishop Albert LeGatt.

Contents

The cathedral of the archdiocese is a minor basilica, Saint Boniface Cathedral, Winnipeg.

History

Saint Boniface Cathedral in 1927 Cathedrale de Saint-Boniface au Manitoba BAnQ P748S1P2181.jpg
Saint Boniface Cathedral in 1927
Joseph Provencher JosephProvencher.jpg
Joseph Provencher

In 1817, settlers at the Red River Colony petitioned Joseph-Octave Plessis, Bishop of Quebec, for a resident priest. In 1818, Plessis sent Rev. Joseph-Norbert Provencher, Rev. Dumoulin and seminarian Guilaume Etienne Edge to open a mission on the Red River in present-day Manitoba, where the majority of settlers were Irish and Scottish Catholics. [1] Provencher's assignment was to convert the Indian nations and to "morally improve" the delinquent Christians who had "adopted the ways of the Indians." [2]

Arriving at Fort Douglas in mid-July, they were given land on the east bank of the Red River by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, of the Hudson's Bay Company. They immediately set to work to build a house before winter. Part of the building served as a chapel, which Provencher dedicated to the missionary, Saint Boniface. The mission at Saint-Boniface was highly successful. In 1819, Provencher was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Quebec with the titular title of Bishop of Juliopolis, and vicar general for the northwest. A second parish, St. François Xavier, was established in 1828 for a Métis community established by Cuthbert Grant at White Horse Plains. [3]

Construction of Saint-Boniface Cathedral commenced in 1832 and was completed in 1839. In 1844, Bishop Provencher persuaded four sisters of the Grey Nuns of Montreal to come to Saint-Boniface. [4] In 1845, the Vicariate Apostolic of the North West was formed with Provencher as ordinary. [5] The area separated from Archdiocese of Québec comprised the entire territory west of the Great Lakes and as far north as the Pole. [6] In 1847, the North West Vicariate was raised to the status of diocese, suffragan to Québec. In June 1850, Oblate missioner Alexandre-Antonin Taché was named coadjutor bishop to Provencher, whom he succeeded upon Provencher's death in July 1853. The following year, the name of the diocese was changed from that of the Diocese of the North West to the Diocese of Saint-Boniface. [7]

On April 8, 1862 the Apostolic Vicariate of Athabaska Mackenzie was erected from territory split off from the Diocese of Saint-Boniface. On September 22, 1871 Saint-Boniface was raised to a metropolitan archdiocese, while at the same time, it lost territory with the establishment of the Diocese of Saint Albert. Taché became the first archbishop. In 1874, he brought the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary from Québec to teach at St. Mary's Academy (Winnipeg). The area of the Archdiocese was again reduced on July 11, 1882 as part of its contribution to the Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, but was increased in 1889 with the reassignment of some land from the Diocese of Saint Albert.

Established On 4 June 1891, the Apostolic Vicariate of Saskatchewan was established from territory drawn from the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface. In 1900, under Archbishop Adélard Langevin, Holy Ghost Parish was established in North Winnipeg to serve Polish Catholics. In 1904, St. Joseph's was founded for the German Catholics in the community. The French church of Sacré Coeur was dedicated in 1905 for former parishioners of St. Mary's. In 1898, Langevin asked the Soeurs de Misericorde from Montreal to assist unwed mothers. They opened, in 1900, a maternity hospital which later developed into Misericordia Health Centre.

The Diocese of Regina was erected on March 4, 1910 from Saint-Boniface, as was the Archdiocese of Winnipeg on December 4, 1915 and the Diocese of Fort William on April 29, 1952.

Cathédrale Saint-Boniface

St. Boniface Cathedral ST. BONIFACE CATHEDRAL 05.jpg
St. Boniface Cathedral

The present cathedral stands on a site that has seen two churches and four cathedrals. The original log chapel was built by Provencher in 1818 and subsequently replaced by a larger structure. In 1832, Provencher, now a bishop, built the first cathedral which was destroyed by fire on December 14, 1860. In 1862, Bishop Alexandre Antonin Taché rebuilt the cathedral in stone. A larger building was completed in 1908 in French Romanesque style, and was designated a minor basilica in 1949. This sustained significant damage in a 1968 fire. The present Saint-Boniface incorporates some features of its predecessor, notably the impressive façade. [8]

Bishops

Diocesan Ordinaries

Apostolic Vicar of North-West
Suffragan Bishops of Saint-Boniface
Archbishops of Saint-Boniface

Coadjutor bishops

Other priests of this diocese who became bishops

Statistics and extent

The archdiocese covers much of the province south of Lake Winnipeg and east of the Red River. It is a bilingual French and English archdiocese. Saint Boniface is a city ward of Winnipeg that sits on the east side of the Red River, and the area is a traditional home of Franco-Manitobans.

As of 2021, the archdiocese contains 87 parishes chaplaincies and missions, 59 diocesan priests, 23 religious priests, 5 seminarians and 135,309 Catholics. It also has 143 Women Religious, 8 Religious Brothers, and 19 permanent deacons. The archdiocese and the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg jointly operate a number of parochial schools in Winnipeg.

See also

Related Research Articles

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec Catholic ecclesiastical territory

The Archdiocese of Québec is a Catholic archdiocese in Quebec, Canada. Being the first see in the New World north of Mexico, the Archdiocese of Québec is also the primatial see for Canada. The Archdiocese of Québec is also the ecclesiastical provincial for the dioceses of Chicoutimi, Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and Trois-Rivières. The archdiocese's cathedral is Notre-Dame de Québec in Quebec City.

Saint Boniface Cathedral

Saint Boniface Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral of Saint Boniface, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is an important building in Winnipeg, and is the principal church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Boniface, serving the eastern part of Manitoba province as well as the local Franco-Manitoban community. The church sits in the centre of the city at 190 avenue de la Cathédrale, Saint Boniface. Before the fire on July 22, 1968 which destroyed the previous building on site, the church was a minor basilica.

Norbert Provencher Canadian clergyman and missionary

Joseph-Norbert Provencher was a Canadian clergyman and missionary and one of the founders of the modern province of Manitoba. He was the first Bishop of Saint Boniface and was an important figure in the history of the Franco-Manitoban community.

Alexandre-Antonin Taché

Alexandre-Antonin Taché, O.M.I., was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, missionary of the Oblate order, author, and the first Archbishop of Saint Boniface in Manitoba, Canada.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton Catholic ecclesiastical territory

The Archdiocese of Edmonton is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese in the Canadian civil province of Alberta. The archbishop's cathedral see is located in St. Joseph Cathedral, a minor basilica in Edmonton. The Archdiocese of Edmonton is the metropolitan see of its ecclesiastical province, which also contains two suffragan dioceses: the Dioceses of Calgary and Saint Paul in Alberta.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Grouard–McLennan Catholic ecclesiastical territory

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Grouard–McLennan is a Latin archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada and the metropolitan see of an ecclesiastical province for the Roman Catholic Church in northwestern Canada.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston, Canada Catholic ecclesiastical territory

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston is a Latin Catholic archdiocese that includes part of the federal Province of Ontario in southeastern Canada.

Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg Ukrainian Greek Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction

The Archeparchy of Winnipeg is a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church ecclesiastical territory or archeparchy of the Catholic Church in Manitoba, a province of Canada. Currently, its archeparch is Lawrence Huculak.

The Apostolic Vicariate of Keewatin was a Roman Catholic missionary pre-diocesan jurisdiction in northern Canada which included the northern half of the Province of Saskatchewan, and was bounded on the north by the Arctic regions, on the south by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface, on the east by the then Apostolic Vicariate of Temiskaming, and on the west by the Diocese of St Albert and the then Apostolic Vicariate of Athabasca.

Adélard Langevin

Louis Philippe Adélard Langevin was a Canadian Oblate priest and Archbishop of Saint-Boniface. He founded the La Liberté newspaper published in Manitoba on May 20, 1913.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port Moresby is a Latin Metropolitan Archdiocese in Papua New Guinea, yet remains dependent on the missionary Propaganda Fide Roman Congregation.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rabaul is a Latin Rite Metropolitan Archdiocese in Papua New Guinea.

Louis-François Richer Laflèche

Louis-François Laflèche,, was a Catholic bishop of the diocese of Trois-Rivières, in the province of Quebec, Canada.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince-Albert, in Saskatchewan, is a Latin suffragan in the western Canadian ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Regina.

Henri Faraud,, a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, was the first Vicar Apostolic of Athabasca-Mackenzie in western Canada.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kananga is the Metropolitan See for the Ecclesiastical province of Kananga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Town

The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cape Town is a Latin archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Cape Town, in the south-western part of South Africa. The archdiocese's motherchurch and its archbishop's see is the cathedral of St. Mary of the Flight into Egypt, who is also the archbishopric's patron.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum is the Latin Metropolitan archbishopric with See in national capital Khartoum whose Ecclesiastical province, including the suffragan Obeid, covers Sudan.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth Catholic ecclesiastical territory

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth is a Roman Catholic archdiocese that includes part of the civil province of Nova Scotia.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gravelbourg was a Latin suffragan of the Archdiocese of Regina and presently a Latin Catholic titular see.

References

Sources - Bibliography

Coordinates: 49°53′22″N97°07′26″W / 49.8895°N 97.1238°W / 49.8895; -97.1238

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.