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Antoine Labelle as a Young Priest

Black & white photographic portrait of a man aged thirty, fairly stout and with dark hair. He is seated, clad in a black cassock buttoned to the neck; his left arm rests on an ornately carved table and in his right hand he holds a book. His gaze is neutral and he is unsmiling.

Photographer: William Notman
Date: 1864
Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain); image available at Musée McCord,  access number I-11098.1

When this photograph of Antoine Labelle was taken in 1864, he had been a curé for eight years. The year before, he had been made the parish priest of Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, close to the U.S. border. The area was abuzz at the time with rumours of invasion by the Fenians (Irish nationalists). “Just let them try to come through Lacolle; you shall see me leading the company to repel them,” he said. He even had his own bugle to call the troops to arms! These were the first expressions of his patriotic impulses.