FUNERAL OF BISHOP CHARLEBOIS ATTENDED BY PRELATES OF WEST

Le Pas witnesses solemn function as first vicar apostolic is laid to rest. Archbishop MecGuigan and Bishop Prud’homme deliver funeral orations.

The Pas, Man., Nov. 25. — With all the pomp and ceremony accorded a departed prelate of the Holy Catholic Church, the Pontifical High Mass of Requiem was celebrated this morning in the cathedral of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in final tribute to the life and works of the Rt. Rev. Ovide Charlebois, o.m.i., late vicar-apostolic of Keewatin who died last Monday morning.

Throughout the week of sorrow, the remains of the pioneering missionary lay in state in his headquarters of the diocese, and at 10 o’clock this morning more than 40 prelates, priests, and missionaries, Sisters of Charity, Christian Brothers, and officials of religions and Catholic social orders gathered to pay hommage in solemn services.

Procession

Long before the following of the Cathedral bell announced the moment of prayer, a procession of persons from eastern and western Canada, from the prairies and the Churchill country, made their way to the church, where beneath the black and white mourning draperies of the nave, they bowed in silence before the bier of a departed soul they came to honor.

Although crowded to capacity, and then to standing room, the cathedral found a place for all those who knew Bishop Charlebois; those who, as members of the faithful, had received his ministrations ; those who knew him as a laborer in the mission fields; those who remembered him as a builder of monumental churches, of hospitals, schools and civic works; and those who cherished an endearing memorÿ of an approachable, kindly-disposed man, who lived with the poor and died with the poor, leaving a wealth of friendships across the continent.

Governments represented

Early to arrive were B. M. Stitt, M.P., representing the Federal Government; Dr. H. H. Elliott, on behalf of the Manitoba Government; C. R. Neely, Mayor of The Pas; and the Body of Counecillors. To these were added Officials of Public Bodies, Executives of Societies and Clubs, men and women prominent in the business and industrial life of the North; citizens of half a dozen faiths and as many nationalities gathered together in the common bond of sympathy; sharing one another’s loss.

At 10 o’elock the members of the Clergy were in their places in the chancel, facing the bier, flanked by the royal purple and gold, emblematie of heavenly kingship; symbolic of the supreme and the infinite, toward which the eyes of worshipping subjects turned; then to rest on vestments of the priesthood, earthly representatives of Almighty Power, in their respective orders; guides and guardians of Christians.

Processional

As the organ offered the Requiem processional, members of the Clergy, the Grey Nuns, and Sisters took their places.

The Rt. Rev. Martin Lajeunesse, succeeding vicar-apostolic, nephew and for many Years secretary, to the departed bishop, occupied his throne to the left, facing the vacant throne of Bishop Charlebois to the right of the altar.

While Bishop Lajeunesse celebrated the High Requiem, priests at altars, below and upon either side, repeated Low Masses for the dead.

The children’s choir united with the male choir in the offertory of sacred music; sopranos and altos, lending sweet enchantment to the strength and robustness of mature voices.

Music of Centuries

Music that harkened down the centuries to the birth of the Church; blending with the mother tongue of the service; Rome encompassing time, and reaching into the distances to conduct her high ritual for one who lived simply in the faith.

Two sermons of consolation were offered; the first by Archbishop McGuigan, Regina, who spoke in English; the second by Bishop Prud’homme, Prince Albert, who adressed the congregation in French.

Sermon of Archbishon McGuigan

The funeral oration of His Grace Archbishop McGuigan was as follows:

“There was much weeping among them, being grieved that they would see his face no more. (Acts XX, 38.) “My Lords, Archbishops and Bishops, Venerable members of the Clergy, dearly beloved in Christ Jesus.

“There are few passages of Holy Writ as touching, tender and pathetic as that which describes the parting of the great Apostle St. Paul from the clergy of the Church of Ephesus when, before embarking, he knelt down and wept with them on the shore and they ‘wept and embraced him being grieved that they would see his face no more (Acts XX, 38.) In like manner, dearly beloved, we are gathered from far and near this morning in union of heartfelt sympathy with His Excellency, the new Vicar Apostolie of Keewatin, who was bound by so many ties of nature and of grace to his uncle and spiritual father — we are gathered together to bid farewell to another Apostle, the Apostle of Northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the Most Rev. Ovide Charlebois, whose kind face we shall 100k upon no more. You, my dear Bishop and Fathers of Mary Immaculate, with the faithful of this Cathedral parish, and indeed the whole body of citizens of The Pas, are bowed down in unlooked for and staggering grief. You mourn the death of him who, by the dignity of his high office and his personal devotion to your highest religious, spiritual and civic interests, endeared himself to your hearts. Through tear-dimmed eyes you see the receding vision of a life well lived and his life work well done. With lips that quiver in the grip of grief, his whole north country bids him this morning an affectionate and grateful farewell.

“Reverence for the person of Bishop Charlebois, for the Oblate family of which he was a distinguished member, and for the Episcopal office which he so worthily held for well-nigh twenty-three years demand that a farewell word be spoken in his honour. And yet, dearly beloved, I know not what thoughts to express or what words to clothe them in as we gather around this altar in sorrow. It would be difficult for anyone to bring into orderly review the striking events of an apostolie life, distinguished by such wealth of virtue, such strenuous endeavour, such high ideals, such splendid achievements. It would be quite impossible for any words of mine to tell to your satisfaction, dear priests and religious of this vast Vicariate, what he was

to you who knew his rare excellence and patient fatherly kindness, through long and frequent intercourse. It is difficult to measure what life has meant to this Vicariate which he founded midst poverty and self-sacrifice of every kind and which he has served s0 long and so faithfully; to this northwest where for nearly half a century he was a true, though humble and unobtrusive leader; and to this country generally whose religious life has been influenced by his Apostolic labours. The manifestations of sorrow seen here this morning and witnessed throughout Western Canada when the news flashed over the wires of his unexpected death on Monday last, speak of a loss which is genuine and universal.

“There is no need to speak at length of his deep spirit of faith, of his ardent charity, of his truly Apostolic spirit. You, dear brother priests, have known his honesty of purpose, the simplicity of his childlike faith, the tenderness of his heart, the Catholicity of his affections. He lived the noble rule of St. Paul: ‘T will spend myself and be spent for your souls, ‘Impender at superimpendar He put complete trust in Divine Providence and became all things to all men, that he might gain all to Christ. The charity of Christ filled his heart because he was a true priest of God, a faithful religious of Mary Immaculate, a noble Bishop and Apostle of Jesus Christ.

“True Priest and devoted Apostle! Yes, to Bishop Charlebois may well be applied these words of Holy Writ: ‘Behold a great Priest who in his day, pleased God and was found just.” Born in a deeply religious family of sturdy French Canadian stock at Oka, in the province of Quebec, early in life he heard the voice of God calling him, as the Master Himgelf had called Andrew and Peter. ‘Come after me and I will make you a fisher of men.’ Thus in the College of L’Assomption near Montreal, in the Oblate Noviciate of Lachine and at the Scholasticate of Ottawa, he, day by day, stepped closer and closer into the footsteps of Christ, gradually ascending the altar where he would touch the very hem of Christ’s garment. It was on July the seventeenth, 1887, that he knelt for ordination at the hands of the saintly, the gentle, the venerable Bishop Grandin, whose cause of beatification is now before the Holy See. Inspired, doubtless, by the devouring zeal of Bishop Grandin, he offered himself to the missions of the Northwest. He came to save the souls of the Indien tribes who ‘sat in darkness and the shadow of death’ — souls for whom the Sacred Heart of the Saviour shed His Blood on the crimsoned heights of Calvary. He heard the voice of God demanding

the sacrifice of all that he held near. ‘Go out from thy people and thy father”s house and come into the land that I will show you’. Hence it was that shortly after his ordination he bade adieu to his native province to become a missionary among the lowliest of God’s children.”

Labored in West

“The first sixteen years of his priesthood were spent at St. Joseph’s mission, Fort Cumberland, in Saskatchewan, where, by his devotion to the sick and his unfeigned love for his Indian children, he soon gained the affection of all. Transferred to the Indian school at Duck Lake, his name is written in letters of gold on the annals of that institution.

“Thus for twenty-three years as a bishop, did he sacrifice his life to Jesus through Mary, ‘Ad Jesum per Mariam’, according to his own motto. During forty-six years, therefore, he was an ambassador of Christ and dispenser of the mysteries of God. Years of sacrifice, of self-annihilation, of humility, of hidden labour for and with God, for the extension of His Kingdom. Years of loneliness with no one but the Blessed Sacrament to comfort him in the isolated mission of Lake Cumberland. Years of truly humble service among his beloved Indians and half breeds when, in poverty and solitude, he cared for the Masters cause. Years among his well-loved charges of the school of Duck Lake during which he brought Christ’s own personality in touch with the souls He had redeemed. This unlocks the secret of the deep reverence and filial love in which the good Father Charlebois was held by the Indian tribes to whom he ministered in his earlier years. They saw in him the Good Shepherd of souls, the kind and merciful Master, Christ Himself.

“Truly, dear brethren, through his eyes they saw the eyes of God to shine and through his lips they heard God’s word. In each of his hands as he raised them up to bless, they saw the wounds that dripped on Calvary and his feet on the altar stairs bore the same marks as those which the Magdalen kissed. As they heard his voice in the confessional, they heard the voice of Him who bade the sinner. ‘Go and sin n6 more’. As they saw him in his daily life bringing comfort and consolation to the poor, the sick and the afflicted, they realized that the words of the Gospel were fulfilled “Pauperes evangelizantur’, ‘The poor have the Gospel preached to them’. They saw in him the Good Shepherd who went about doing good in the days of old, they

saw Him who had compassion on the multitudes, who soothed the sorrow£ul and bound up the broken hearted”. The great charity and goodness of his heart drew all souls to him and through him to Christ, for he was a true missionary a priest after God’s own heart.

“But the day came when Father Charlebois was called to the exalted office of Bishop of the Church of God. He had learned to obey and therefore he was placed in command. He had learned to serve in humility and lowliness and therefore he was invested with authority. Then opened for him a wider field for his apostolie labours when he was named Vicar Apostolic of Keewatin. Then with mitred brow and staff in hand he was called upon to teach to rule and sanctify his spiritual children of this vast district. I need not tell you that, in this capacity, he was the very soul of the great work accomplished here by the Oblate Fathers aided by a few secular priests since the erection of this vicariate in 1910. His priests and co-laborers will tell you that they soon learned by experience to feel that they had as leader, a father full of vigilance, diligence, judgment and charity, who showed the deepest interest in all persons and matters under his care, who rejoiced in the success of his assistants and sympathized with them in their trials. Like St. Paul, he rejoiced with those who rejoiced and wept with those who wept. His prudence and wise counsel were at the service of all. For, urged by the charity of Christ, he freely lent his services to whatever work would extend the kingdom of God.

“Not content with supplying the pressing needs of his missions he built up a flourishing parish and missionary centre at The Pas. He established the Scholasticate of Beauval and interested himself in better educational institutions for his Indian children. This very cathedral in which we worship today, the parish school near by, the fine religious institutions that surround us, particularly St. Anthony’s hospital, eloquently proclaim his zeal for the beauty of God’s house, his love for your children, his care of the sick and dying. I was going to say that these buildings would be his monument. But no — ‘Exegi monumentum œre perennius — grateful affection for him is enshrined in the hearts of his sorrow-laden priests and people in this north land, his name shall be spoken in benediction from generation unto generation.

“We are indeed grieved that we shall look upon his face no more, but we do not sorrow as those who have no hope. God is not unmindful of his soldiers of the cross. Bishop Charlebois has fought the good

fight, has finished his course, has kept the faith and will, no doubt, receive the crown of glory promised to the good and faithful servant of Jesus Christ. He has literally left ‘father and mother and sisters and brothers and home and lands for the name of Christ and therefore, according to the scriptural promise, he shall receive life everlesting (Matt. XIX 27-29), that life so far above every earthly joy that St. Paul, speaking of it says: “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God has prepared for those who love him’.

“Yet, dear brethren, we must pray for the soul of this Venerable Patriarch, the father, the friend who has left us. For more than three score years and ten, in much striving and with great fidelity, he walked in the way of the Master; but he was of the earth and therefore subject to human frailty, to error and to sin. Great was his dignity, great were his graces, but great too were his responsabilities. He has already given an account of his stewardehip. God alone knows the spotlessness and purity required of a soul before it may enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

“T know that the ties that bound him to you, my dear Lord Bishop, Fathers and Brothers of Mary Immaculate, will assure for his beloved soul the gratitude of your frequent and fervent prayers. We, too, dear Brother Prelates and brother priests, who, though not of his religious family or his intimate associates, yet esteemed and loved him in the Holy Sacrifice, ask God to grant him a place of ‘refreshment, light and peace You, Reverend Sisters and devoted laity, who will no longer see the familiar figure of this venerable Prelate take his place in this sanctuary where he so often came to pray and offer sacrifice — you will unite your suffrages and your prayers with ours and beseech the Eternal Father, in Whom he trusted as a child, to look with clemency and mercy upon his soul.

“Especially this morning, as this solemn funeral dirge is sung and as the last solemn absolution and blessing of Holy Mother Church, let us all join in the fervent prayer and supplication that he may enter speedily into the joy of the Lord.

“May the angels lead him into Paradise. May the holy standardbearer, St. Michael bring him into holy light. May Mary Immaculate, Queen of Heaven, receive her Oblate. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. Amen.”

TRIBUTE TO BISHOP CHARLEBOIS

In its issue of Nov. 20th., the Northern Mail, enterprising daily of Le Pas, pays the following tribute to the memory of Bishop Charlebois: « Bishop Charleboïis »

“In the death of Bishop Ovide Charlebois, Northern Manitoba loses a man who contributed more than any other person to the history and early development of this country.

“A pioneer who saw The Pas grow from a trading post, a man of progress and a man of implicit faith in northern Manitoba’s future greatness, Bishop Charlebois was an important link between this new north-country and the older and more established east,

“His work was Church work. To that, without stint, he gave his strong body and his brilliant mind, but in giving his life to his church he gave something also to the north country. He built a great diocese. He gave it hospitals and schools. He gave it progress and development and civilization. And 80 his name will live forever, not only in the annals of his own organization, but in the history of western Canada.

“It was in the service of his church that he contracted the illness which brought his death. In the long years of labor he gave to the country he had never spared himself. He had never sought the comforts of the fireside. He was a man of action, of summer trails and winter journeys. All the seasons of the year had found him more often in the far-flung outposts of his huge northern territory than in his own home and even advancing years failed to curb his devotion to his duty.

“It was the cold and hardship of a northern trail which brought his death. It would have been his wish to remain on duty until the final hours of life, giving his last energy to the work which had been his lifework.

“His death leaves a gap in Northern Manitoba which cannot be filed because of his associations with the past, because of his tireless struggle to build a great diocese and a great north.

“That diocese will be his monument”.

Extrait du Worthwest Review, samedi, le ? décembre, 1933.