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Labelle and Posterity

The collective imagination rightly associates the Laurentians with Curé Labelle’s colonization efforts. Yet, the hard work of the colonizing missionary and Deputy Minister of Colonization also helped foster the development of a number of other Quebec regions.

Several decades after his death, Labelle’s popularity was still undiminished. In the 1930s, National Breweries, in an attempt to boost sales of its Dawes beer, created three advertisements featuring Curé Labelle as a national hero—a rather unusual marketing approach for the time.

Reproductions of three black & white advertisements for a brewery. The first illustration is of a man in travelling clothes being welcomed by a group of well-dressed men and women in a living room. The second shows a man wearing a cassock and his travelling companion, shotgun in hand, standing beside a canoe by a river. In the third, a many in a cassock is seen with, in the background, a waterfall on a river and churches in various architectural styles. At the bottom of each advertisement are several paragraphs of advertising copy and the name of a brand of beer.

Three National Breweries advertisements featuring Curé Antoine Labelle

 

In January 2016, in Saint-Jérôme, Curé Labelle was officially designated a “historical figure of Quebec.” The designation was announced by Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications Hélène David, accompanied by the minister responsible for the Laurentides region, Christine St-Pierre, at the opening of an exhibition on Labelle.

Colour photograph of 14 men and women surrounding a table on which sits a statue of a bear, symbolizing Curé Labelle.

Dignitaries attending the ceremony at which Antoine Labelle was officially designated a historical figure of Quebec

Colour photograph of exhibition panels with texts and images, surrounding display cases housing various objects.

“Le Roi du Nord” exhibition at Saint-Jérôme Cathedral

 

This initiative, steered by the Société d’histoire de la Rivière-du-Nord, secured Labelle’s legacy. A pioneer whose determination, perseverance and patriotism played a crucial role in the building of Quebec identity, he is now recognized as a major figure in the province’s history.

Since his death in 1891, Curé Labelle has remained in the public eye, inspiring and fascinating generation after generation.

Drawing in black ink showing a street sign bearing the name “Rue Labelle.” Nearby, a workman carries away a sign reading “Rue Dumont,” which has been replaced.

The name of Rue Dumont in Saint-Jérôme is changed to Rue Labelle

Death of the Man, Birth of the Legend Studies and Biographies