Vicariate
of North America

The Eudists not only educated thousands of people, but also contributed to the well-being of their communities by organizing concerts, staging plays, encouraging sports, and promoting community involvement.

Eudist work in Canada extends beyond Baie Sainte-Marie. The first record of a juvenate dates to 1890, when the college opened. Saint-Jean-Eudes Juvenate opened in 1894. It moved to Bathurst in 1916, then returned to Church Point the following year after the Bathurst juvenate burned down.

The Eudists operated several major seminaries in Canada, mainly in Québec and Nova Scotia. They formed Eudist candidates as well as future members of the diocesan clergy.

In the early 1900s, strong anticlerical sentiment prevailed in France. A law separating church and state was passed in 1905, prompting many priests to leave for Canada. The first group of fourteen Eudist missionaries arrived on the North Shore in 1903. Through their work in education, the Eudists left a lasting mark on the region’s development.

The Congregation established a presence in the Quebec City region in 1911, at Saint-Gabriel House in Lévis. Seven years later, Archbishop Louis-Nazaire Bégin invited Father Pierre-Marie Dagnaud to found the new Saint-Cœur-de-Marie Parish (Saint-Dominique) on Grande Allée in Quebec City. In 1917, the Congregation founded Good Shepherd Parish in Laval-des-Rapides.

The Eudists’ presence at Church Point reflects the encounter between France and Acadia in architecture and culture. The gradual transition from a staff of French priests to one of Canadian-born priests helped bring these cultural influences into balance.