Streamlined Biography of Brother Marie-Victorin

On 3 April 1885, Joseph-Louis-Conrad Kirouac was born in Kingsey Falls, in the Eastern Townships, the son of Philomène Luneau from Saint-Norbert, Arthabaska County, and Cyrille Kirouac; grandson of François Kirouac, esq.* The family is of Breton origin. His five sisters were: Adelcie, Laura, Blanche, Eudora and Bernadette. He will carry out an extensive correspondence with his older sister, Adelcie, the Reverend Mother Marie-des-Anges, founder of the Collège Jésus-Marie in Sillery (Quebec City suburb). Their correspondence is a wonderful source of information on their family and also reveals the difficulties they faced as educators, and in their spiritual life. (*In French, he was known as ‘Sire Chevalier François Kirouac’, as he was a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre).

As a schoolboy, the young Conrad used to spend his summer holidays at “La Volière” (the Aviary) in Ancienne-Lorette, with a dozen cousins under the supervision of his paternal grandfather, François Kirouac, or he spent time with his maternal grandparents Luneau in Saint-Norbert where he tended his own very first garden.

The young Conrad fully enjoyed life in the countryside. He loved the freedom, running in the fields, picking strawberries, raspberries and fishing small trout in the stream just half a mile away from the Luneau’s house.

He spent most of his youth in the Saint-Sauveur Parish in Quebec City where his father, Cyrille and uncle Napoléon G. ran a flour and grains wholesale business inherited from their father François.

In the book entitled: Québec et Lévis à l’aurore du XXe siècle (Quebec City and Levis in the Early Days of the 20th Century), published in 1900, the author A.B. Routhier wrote about Cyrille Kirouac:

“Born in March 1863, he received his commercial education at the Académie des frères des Écoles Chrétiennes (Brothers of the Christian Schools’ Academy) in Quebec City. He began his commercial career by setting up his own business as general merchant in Kingsey Falls and Coaticook, in the Eastern Townships, before being part of the Kirouac and Son enterprise in Quebec City. Both, Napoléon and Cyrille, to this day, have been skilfully walking in their noble father’s footsteps, following the excellent and precious family traditions inherited from their father.

François Kirouac, esq., Brother Marie-Victorin’s grandfather, was a remarkable man leading an active public life. He was Mayor of Saint-Sauveur, Quebec City Councillor, President of Union Saint Joseph, Director of the North-Shore Railway, Vice-President of the Société des Prêts et Placements (Investment and Loan Society). For over forty years he was a devoted member of the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Society.

Conrad Kirouac attended the parish school, then the Quebec Commercial Academy, a high school run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools. In June 1901, he entered the Mont-de-la-Salle Novitiate (of the Brothers of the Christian School, then located where the Montreal Botanical Garden is today.

Starting in 1904, he taught French composition, literary analysis, algebra and geometry, first in Saint-Jérôme (in the Laurentian area, north of Montreal, T.N.) then in Saint-Léon Parish School in Westmount (Montreal island) and, finally, in Longueuil (Montreal South Shore). When it was discovered that he suffered from tuberculosis, his doctor ordered him to leave his books and students and to roam freely in the woods and fields.

So, it is with new eyes that he looked at nature’s wonders! Thanks to his quick and curious mind, he rapidly learned about botany. In 1904, he met Brother Rolland-Germain, f.é.c. (e.g. Frères des Écoles chrétiennes = Brother of the Christian Schools), who became a loyal botanical research companion and, until the end, a very competent and precious associate.

Professor M. L. Fernald from Harvard University in Boston, USA, guided and encouraged Brother Marie-Victorin. In 1906, after teaching in Longueuil for only two years, Brother Marie-Victorin created a Literary Circle (Cercle de La Salle). Owing to his great talent as a communicator, he knew how to awaken the interest of his students and pass on to them the will to learn and discover. His leadership qualities were already evident. On 3 May 1913, he was deeply affected by his mother’s death; she was only fifty years old. He overcame his grief and put his mind on writing two books about the Quebec flora.

In 1919, he published Récits laurentiens (Laurentian Tales) followed in 1920 by Croquis laurentiens (Laurentian Sketches). These two books, reprinted many times, definitely established his literary reputation.

In 1920, the authorities of the University of Montreal asked him to create the Botanical Institute. On 24 October 1921, Cyrille Kirouac, his father, died at the age of 58; not only was it a great loss but it also generated many worries as he was the executor of his father’s important estate.

In 1924, he was appointed professor of botany at University of Montreal and, at the same time, Bishop Bruchési, then Archbishop of Montreal and Chancellor of the University, instructed him to create the Montreal Botanical Garden and be its director.

Short History of the Botanical Institute

From “Bulletin du Très-Saint-Enfant-Jésus mars-avril 1945” (Newsletter of the Holy Infant Jesus Parish, dated March-April 1945)         

“In the beginning, in 1921, the botanical laboratory was located on Saint-Denis Street near Sainte-Catherine Street, in what was then the University of Montreal building. The lab was on the ground floor as well as the office, the classroom, the lab worktables, the different collections, the herbal samples, all in one room. At that time, the entire library covered two wooden shelves behind the door. In 1922, Brother Marie-Victorin defended his thesis on Quebec ‘FILICINÉES’ (Quebec Ferns) and was granted a Doctor of Science degree from University of Montreal.

“Enthusiasm was in the air and everything was fine until two years of efforts went up in flames. It meant starting all over again with renewed courage.

“In 1923, Émile Jacques and Jacques Rousseau became his assistants; gradually others joined until the team included fifteen people. The journalists were devoted friends of Brother Marie-Victorin and his endeavours, but when they talked about the botanical laboratory, they usually referred to ‘the University basement room’. But it was a very inspiring basement room, if one judges by the countless research papers written by Brother Marie-Victorin, who got used to writing in spite of the surrounding noise and he seemed to appreciate the beehive atmosphere.

“In order to benefit from a little fresh air, all office doors were left permanently opened. The herbal samples’ room, containing thousands of precious plants, located next to a dark and foreboding storage room, was often visited by rats.”

The Botanical Garden

The plans and the construction of the Botanical Garden were a combined effort with the architect Lucien Kéroack, a distant cousin of Brother Marie-Victorin, who had also worked on the plans and construction of the University of Montreal.

Brother Marie-Victorin knew how to promote and develop team work around him. His numerous associates included men like Henry Teusher, who became the chief horticulturalist and superintendent of the Botanical Garden; Jules Brunel, a graduating student from the Longueuil College, became his assistant as early as 1921; there were also Émile Jacques and Jacques Rousseau. On June 9, 1931, the Botanical Garden was officially founded thanks to the support of Camilien Houde, then Mayor of Montreal. The project took shape and was unanimously approved; the Montreal newspapers supported and promoted it and, thanks particularly to Honoré Parent, the Botanical Garden survived many storms. Since then, the Botanical Garden has become an important research centre for scientists, an enchanted Eden for everyone and an important learning centre for all.

The Exceptional Educator

Brother Marie-Victorin was a great educator; besides teaching regular classes, personal scientific research and writing literary works, during every holiday he organized fieldtrips which were freely and willingly attended by his students. For years, every Sunday evening, he organized a special programme where he read and commented on La Fontaine’s Fables, illustrated by films… He launched a new type of school called: ‘École de la Route’ (On the Road School), attended by professors and teachers eager to study botany with the Master, these classes enabled them to better pass on to their own students the love of nature’s beauties.

Founder and, later, president of the Société canadienne d’histoire naturelle (Canadian Society of Natural History), with Brother Adrien Rivard, c.s.c., he launched the Cercles des jeunes naturalistes (Youth Natural Science Groups) soon including 30,000 members. Brother Marie-Victorin was always concerned with and involved in many different ways in educating youth of every age group.

Fieldtrips / Scientific Expeditions

He traveled a great deal. In 1929 a fieldtrip took him to South Africa where he met and befriended Father Breuil, a famous French palaeontologist. Later on he met Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the famous French scholar who reconciled Catholicism with Darwinian biology. Meeting these people had a decisive effect on the course of his botanical career as it gave him the tools to play a role in the war against the religious prejudices that paralysed our national scientific life at the time. During this voyage he also visited Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

In 1933, Brother Marie-Victorin was the guest of honour at the Science Congress in Leicester, England. Afterwards he attended the Science Congress in Vancouver. In 1934, he was the official representative of his Religious Order at a congress on training for religious educators at Lembecf-Lez-Hal in Belgium. During this trip, he visited some European countries and went to Great Britain to join the Canadian Research Council delegation at the British Association for the Advancement of Science Convention held in Aberdeen. From 1927 on, he was the official representative of the Royal Canadian Society for the Advancement of Science.

In 1939, he went on his first fieldtrip to Cuba accompanied by two of his sisters, Laura and Eudora. In April 1942, he visited Haiti, later spent ten days in Po, Italy, before returning to Cuba. His health was always fragile and he needed more sunshine and warmth than Canada provide him. He always took many photographs during these trips and used the opportunity to accumulate information that would prove extremely precious when writing his scientific works.

La Flore Laurentienne: first published in 1935

For thirty years, guided by his genius, Brother Marie-Victorin worked on the book that would best introduce him to the scientific world: La Flore Laurentienne (Laurentian Flora) published in 1935. This botanical ‘bible’ is still today an essential, definitive and sure guide to all botanists and all those interested in our beautiful country’s flora use it.

Numerous prizes crowned Brother Marie-Victorin’s works, amongst them let us mention:

In 1936, the Gold Medal from the Société Provancher d’Histoire naturelle (Provancher Natural History Society) for the publication of La Flore Laurentienne (Laurentian Flora).

In 1937, the Quebec Government presented him with the title and insignia of Commandeur du Mérite agricole (Commander of Agricultural Merit), the highest award and decoration the Province could bestow on such a devoted servant of land and agriculture.

His Tragic Death

On 14 July 1944, Canada lost one of its greatest scientists. Brother Marie-Victorin died tragically in a road accident on the way back from a fieldtrip in Black Lake in the Eastern Townships.

Testimony of Louis-Philippe Audet in L’Action Catholique (Quebec City former daily newspaper) 17 July 1944:

“Brother Marie-Victorin was a world renowned scientist. He leaves ninety-nine works of pure science, two-hundred-and-twenty-seven articles, papers and literary briefs and popular scientific treatises, as well as many more works in preparation for future publication. He did detailed studies in botany, geology and many other subjects, and compiled everything in countless fieldtrip journals illustrated with his own photographs. Les Itinéraires botaniques dans l’île de Cuba (The Botanical Fieldtrips on the Island of Cuba) published in collaboration with Brother Léon, f.é.c. from Cuba, brought him the highest praises.”

Translated by Marie Lussier Timperley, for Le Trésor des Kirouac, Number 73, Autumn 2003; corrected 6-5-29.