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Mgr. Bourget

Sepia-tone photograph of a clergyman seated in a chair. He is elderly, with white hair. He wears a cassock, and a cross hangs from a long chain around his neck. His right hand rests on a table, with a ring visible on one finger.

Photographer: Unknown
Date: Around 1870
Source: Private Collection Dominique Beauregard.

Monseigneur Ignace Bourget had made the right decision: Antoine Labelle was man best placed to lead the parish of Saint-Jérôme. Labelle took his role as spiritual guide very seriously and, as part of his duties, maintained a steady correspondence with his bishop, regularly seeking out Bourget’s sage advice on how best to deal with his parishioners. Labelle was to lose an invaluable ally when the aging Bourget had to step aside in favour of Monseigneur Édouard-Charles Fabre in 1876. From the start, relations with the new bishop of the diocese would be strained.