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February 21, 1699
A Newfoundland Saint?
BLESSED BROTHER DIDACE PELLETIER OF PLACENTIA
The road to being canonized in the Roman Catholic Church can be very slow as can be attested by those who have been working to have BLESSED BROTHER DIDACE PELLETIER canonized a saint. Brother Didace has Newfoundland connections. He worked in Placentia, Newfoundland at what was then called Our Lady of the Angels Parish from 1689-1692.
Brother Didace was the first child born at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, or at least the first child whose baptismal certificate is inscribed in the parish register; he was also the first Canadian-born Lay Brother of the first missionaries in New France, the Recollets (French Franciscans), and the first Canadian who left a reputation of sanctity on Canadian soil after his death. Such are the titles of Blessed Brother Didace, baptized Claude Pelletier.
Claude Pelletier was born on June 28, 1657; his parents were Georges Pelletier and Catherine Vanier, from Dieppe, France.
His life was not eventful exteriorly, and can be summarized in a few words. As a little boy, he was sent to the apprentices’ school established by Bishop de Laval at Saint Joachim, not far from Sainte Anne de Beaupré. There he learned the carpenter’s trade, in which he excelled. After a childhood and youth, he entered the Recollets (French Franciscans) at Quebec City in the autumn of 1678, at the age of twenty-one. He was clothed with the Franciscan habit in 1679, and received the name Didace in honor of a Spanish Saint, the patron of Lay Brothers; he made his religious vows one year later, in 1680.
Brother Didace lived at Our Lady of the Angels mission in Quebec City for another three or four years. Because of his talent as a carpenter, he had a large part in the construction work which the Recollets of that time were undertaking. He was sent to Ile Percé and Ile Bonaventure in the Gaspesie, or eastern shore of the peninsula (1683-1689), to Plaisance (now Placentia), in Newfoundland (1689-1692) It is understood while in Placentia he was responsible for the construction of the first church in that town. Following Placentia he was transferred to to Montreal (1692-1696), and finally to Three Rivers, Quebec (1696-1699). It was in this last city, while doing carpentry work at the Recollets’ church, that he contracted a fatal case of pleurisy.
Brother Didace was rushed to the Ursulines’ hospital; there he requested the last Sacraments, despite the opinion of a doctor who declared him in no immediate danger. After participating in the prayers for the dying, he expired on the evening of February 21, 1699, a Saturday. He was forty-one years old; his last twenty years had been spent with the Recollets.
Between 1700 and 1717 the bishops of Quebec set up nine hearings relating to at least 17 miracles attributed to Brother Didace.
Suggested Reading:
Magnificat magazine, No. 4, April 1991 (Editions Magnificat: St. Jovite).
La Pelleterie, publication of the "Association des familles Pelletier", Fall 1992.
Archival fonds: BLESSED BROTHER DIDACE PELLETIER fonds
For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca
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Larry Dohey
Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s
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