A Canadian Bishop named Venerable

Most Rev. Ovide Charlebois, the first bishop of what is now the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, Manitoba, was given the title “Venerable” on November 28, 2019 by Pope Francis. The designation signifies that he lived the heroic virtues of faith, hope and charity. If it can be determined that a miracle occured due to his intercession, the next step for the Vatican will be to declare him “Blessed”.

Ovide Charlebois was the 7th of 14 children born in Oka, Quebec to Hyacinthe Charlebois and Émérence Chartier. Four of his brothers would also become priests. He received his basic education outside present-day Montreal in Sainte Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson where his family moved soon after his birth.

In 1882, at the age of 20, Ovide followed several of his brilliant peers and joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) with whom he would begin a missionary life in Western Canada.

Archbishop Vital Grandin, OMI, who was declared Venerable in 1966 and was Bishop of what is now Edmonton Alberta (the diocese of Saint-Albert, at the time), attracted young priests to the region because of his holiness. Ovide was ordained by Bishop Grandin on July 17, 1887 and assumed a role as a missionary in the diocese.

The young priest’s first assignment was the new Mission Saint-Joseph, at Fort Cumberland, Saskatchewan. He regularly travelled to surrounding posts, often 100 miles away. Such isolation was to last 16 long years, during which Father Ovide only saw colleagues occasionally. Father Ovide had previously expressed his concerns about being isolated in a far removed location. During the next four years in such a remote outpost, he would spend only one and a half months with a fellow Oblate of Mary. Of all the miseries of mission life, we believe that loneliness was the most difficult for his loving heart.

On March 4, 1910, Rome established the Apostolic Vicariate of Keewatin (meaning “north wind blowing”). On August 8, Ovide Charlebois was appointed its first Bishop and was consecrated a few months following in L’Assomption, Quebec by Archbishop Adelard Langevin of Saint-Boniface, Manitoba. The new Apostolic Vicariate included northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and extended from the 53rd parallel to the North Pole.

Of all the Apostolic Vicariates existing at the time, it was certainly the one whose administration and provisioning proved to be the most difficult. Portage from one watercourse to another was the method for transporting luggage, supplies and the travelling bishop!

Bishop Charlebois established his episcopal residence in The Pas, Manitoba, in a 14 x 14 feet log cabin. Life was not easier because he was a Bishop. Even though Bishop Charlebois would call The Pas his home for the rest of his life, much of the time he was not there; he was traveling in the wilderness.

The twenty-three years of his episcopate saw him travel constantly in pursuit of “his sheep”; he founded new missions and visited them two or three times each year. Part of his sacrifice was to travel without respite. In 1911, he recounted with simplicity his first episcopal tour, in a style that reminds us of the Epistles of Saint Paul:

“I covered 2000 miles (3200 km.) by canoe and 50 miles (80 km.) on foot through the forest. I slept on the ground 60 times, under the protection of the small tent in which I celebrated Mass so often. I visited 14 missions, totaling 4500 Catholics. Six of these missions had never been visited by a bishop. I confirmed 1100 Amerindians whose fine dispositions greatly edified me.”

He made similar voyages tens of times. According to his estimates, during the winter of 1900-1901, he travelled some 3,000 miles on snowshoes and dog sleds, and camped 35 times in the snow.

One cannot doubt Father Charlebois’ affection for the children and adults of the First Nations of the Keewatin forests. His entire career as a missionary priest and pioneer bishop was spent living among them and he performed many good works for the people whose souls he loved.

The Bishop’s recurrent refrain was well known to all:

“If we do not become saints, we are fools.”

Besides being fluent in Cree and Chipewyan, Bishop Charlebois was a skilled carpenter who built chapels, schools and boarding schools, as well as his episcopal residence and cathedral in The Pas.

A source of inspiration for this difficult life was his dual devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The motto of his episcopal life recalls the very origins of his spiritual life: “To Jesus through Mary”.

Bishop Charlebois played a major role in establishing St. Therese of Lisieux as the Patron of Missions. An Oblate Mission at Hudson Bay was about to be closed until Father Arsene Turquetil baptized the first Inuits in the region on July 2, 1917. The priest had offered a novena to St. Therese; as a result the Mission remained opened. He credited his success to the intercession of St. Therese.

Bishop Charlebois was so moved by this that he sent a request to Rome signed by 226 missionary bishops from all around the world to designate St. Therese of Lisieux as the patroness of all missionaries. On December 14, 1927, Pope Pius XI proclaimed the “Little Flower” Patron Saint of Missions.

Heroic strength, admirable patience and humility in the difficulties of the apostolic life and a desire for holiness are the traits that make the figure of this missionary bishop endearing.

For Bishop Charlebois, the supernatural was second nature. He spent the first two hours of his day in prayer. “I accept disappointments, ingratitude, privations and illnesses in view of martyrdom. I consider myself on a pyre where I burn slowly. I cough like an old sheep, I can’t wait to put down the harness, which I find heavier and heavier.” In the spring of 1933, he consecrated his nephew, Martin Lajeunesse, OMI, as his coadjutor and successor.

On November 20, 1933 Bishop Charlebois died in The Pas, at the age of 71. Destitute, he asked for a funeral for the poor. He was buried in the cemetery in The Pas and his remains have rested in the cathedral crypt since 1955.

Let us pray for God to give us many holy bishops like Ovide Charlebois. Ask for favours through his intercession so that one day he will be declared Blessed by the holy Roman Catholic Church.