Each family has its social fields. In this, our family owns one of the most beautiful dualities of human history. Thus, Turcotte for their hard work and constant part of the culture of the earth, thus feeding a portion of the population, on the other hand, they cultivate the thought of giving son in the service of reason embodied in social policy.
In the temporal order of things, the Turcotte found a place worthy of human beings born to love and give. In order of spiritual things, our family has children in the service of God, offering their lives to the example of Jesus Christ to those they love.
This book presents us with some, with random events of their lives. We hope they give some idea of the abundant fruits of the life of our many religious.
The pedigree of the Turcotte family, born of a growing transplanted in the fertile Ile d'Orleans, has large branches, the source of numerous outbreaks of small buds that are born and die in the shadow of a humble glory. Sometimes fate carries away the memories of some people who sink into people's memory, like another great story. Thus, Sister St. Vitus whose real name Rosa Beaudouin Beaudouin daughter of Guy and Rosaire Turcotte, daughter of John and Rose Turcotte Dutil, became the movements of Providence, a missionary in Kenya. Sister St. Vitus spent two years in North Africa, in Kenya, where she remained in the mission of Thika nearly sixty years, marked only two short interruptions, either in Mombasa as superior acting, and Limuru where it 's occupies aspirants to religious life. She never returned to Canada, his native country.
Missionary, it was his arrival in Kenya, devoting himself to teaching. It opens at Mangu school girls with great difficulty, and after a long time, it overcomes the lack of people who do not see the need. Responsible for both outputs in the villages and the vestry at the parish, Sister St. Vitus worked to the limit of its possibilities. Well with the Kikuyu, ingenious and skilled in various jobs, she was able to use all his talents to those who had called. It was superior to Thika in 1935 to 1953.
What immediately struck with Sister St. Vitus was her sweetness, gentleness of eyes and voice, a clear sign of a great loving respect. Robust health when his age prevented him more work, she knits, reads and prays a lot, makes a thousand little services around it. Each morning, the kitchen is happy to help peel the vegetables.
Another less obvious feature of his personality was his firmness. It revealed for example in the morning sunrise, sunset late with the community, its presence in the film shows every time we had a beautiful film for students. The calls for the bell to it were indisputable expression of the will of God. Basically, it applies consistently to follow Christ in poverty, chastity, obedience. It could find a little too careful its way to translate the sake of universal dependence on poverty and obedience, she did not reveal a desire for less absolute consecration into the details, evidence of the delicacy his love of God.
The great movement that led to the conciliar Updated found in her a hearty reception. She loves to hear the news of the world, the Church of Africa, communities and people she has known. Any interested and everything about it for prayer. One word recurs frequently in his conversations: charity. His commitment to Christ, Sister St. Vitus has always resulted in a devotion to God present and active in the Eucharist. We see her spend long hours in the chapel praying, or doing a reading, nonagenarian without glasses! This deep communion of God with his heart very impressed by the Sisters of the Assumption which our chapel is also their hours of exercises.
On the ninth morning of January we found ashore in his bedroom. The doctor said incipient paralysis of the left side. It is perfectly lucid and speaks normally. From that day she leaves the room and rarely in a wheelchair, his legs no longer carry the state and its application of multiple and painstaking care. Every morning she receives Holy Communion, she remains cheerful, often malicious, still interested in everything, loves the visits, especially those of priests, which many often come to see. That it was a great joy to have twice visited by the Archbishop of Nairobi.
Sister St. Vitus appeared grateful for any service rendered, and when treated, she apologized for her sisters to take time from work. She died April 27, 1969, after many days of illness.
| Photo of Alice Turcotte |
Collection of Madame Fernande Turcotte
Abel crossed the sea, ascended a river, settled on the Island of Orleans. Later, his children re-crossed by paths so often crushed by their father, land and farms still seeding, islands to evangelize and care.
Thus, Miss Alice Turcotte earned a position on the Isle-aux-Grues and a souvenir which reminds us of the reality.
On February 2, 1940, I crossed the river by canoe, from me as "nurse colony on an island of 84 families. I was 23 years.
About a month after my arrival, just
wondering if I could not do anything for a horse who had made a gash several
inches on one leg in "making the ice" on the river - because
it would cut blocks of ice on the St. Lawrence and were kept in reserve
for the coolers.
Here I am before the beast j'anesthésie cut with ether and make
several stitches. Wonder! ... the wound healed without complication.
Therefore, my reputation was made and we do not call me "The little girl" but ... "The Guard"!
Note: Some sixty years earlier, the great aunt of the nurse, Miss Alphonsine Turcotte, landed at the Isle-aux-Grues. She had to prepare as assistant teacher at a successful career in teaching.
Fifty years of priesthood in Canada's North through the bravery of an Indian and an officer of the Force Royale.51.
Remove all his clothes soaked in cold 45 below zero after a near-drowning under the ice of a lake in the Far North, is really unthinkable.
But Father Joseph Turcotte, now aged 76 years and residing in Fort McMurray, can not now celebrating its fiftieth anniversary as a priest if an Indian and a member of the RCMP have not forced to remove her clothes he are already more than forty years at Lake Bistcho.
I do not think I could execute me and I am certain that if my fellow passengers do not compel me to do, I would surely frozen to death, said Father Turcotte Representative Journal "Edmonton this week. Father Turcotte recalls that after having withdrawn from the icy water, his two companions lit a campfire and as he had dry clothes in his bag, he then completely recovered from this adventure.
The Oblate father, a native of the province of Quebec, was affectionately nicknamed "the man who represents himself the Ecumenical Council" because of his kindness to people of all beliefs and he has to his credit a half-century service in the North.
He worked mostly in the Northwest Territories, at various locations, Fort Liard to Coppermine, on Coronation Gulf.
Traveling long distances, either on foot or with a dog team, or by boat, he visited and comforted the Indians as the whites who formed a sparse population living in small isolated parishes or humble hamlets outside the main settlement in this vast territory of northern Canada.
| Photo of Father Joseph Turcotte |
Collection of Mme Fernande Turcotte (Beauport)
Father Joseph Turcotte.
The place most in the South where he performs the duties of his ministry was in Fort McMurray, first as curate from 1948 to 1958, since he returned in 1967 to perform the function of cure. When, recently, the population of Fort McMurray decided to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination, the city said today: "The Feast of Father Turcotte.
Protestants and Catholics brought their contest for a volunteer weekend of celebrations, hosting a dinner for over 400 guests, a picnic, which attracted about 2,000 people, a Mass was celebrated in the Catholic church St-Jean-Baptiste , in which participated the Minister of the Anglican Diocese, the Rev. John Matthews. In addition, an evening, followed by a snack, took place at the parish hall packed with friends for the occasion unique.
Mr. Charles Knight, the mayor of the town of McMurray, told the "Journal" that: "He deserves the respect of us all" and Mr. Knight, of Protestant faith, said: "Father Turcotte is one of my great friends. " "I came here in 1957 and I had to live without my family for over a year. There were two different groups in town: married people who rarely went out at night and another group who spent their free time in the local hotel. As he belonged neither to one nor the other, it became customary to visit the Catholic presbytery, to chat with the Father Turcotte. The fact that I did not belong to his religion does not bother him. We talked about different subjects, but he never tried to make me a sermon. "
Born in Val Racine, Quebec, December 16, 1897, the second in a family of eleven children, 5 boys and 6 girls, Father Joseph in her childhood loved to skate and later in 1926, he decided to build what he believed to be the first ice in the Northern Territory-West at Fort Simpson.
Elevated to the priesthood June 14, 1924 in Ottawa, after his studies in Val Racine, then in Ottawa and Scholasticate Oblate who was in Edmonton. When he was assigned to Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories, between-it took to learn the language of the Indians, but he said, "it certainly must complete two years to successfully speak the language easily'.
Father Turcotte said: "I preached in the dialect two months after my arrival, but it was a desperate effort to prove my success," he added with a hearty laugh: "it was rather painful as this supreme effort in the middle The sermon I could not speak and I had many difficulties to finish the sermon. "
Then he translated the New Testament in the dialects "slave" and "Rabbitskin. When he tells his proposed arena, Father Turcotte says he made mistake when he began the rink 100 'x 50' in Fort Simpson. He thought that 25 barrels of water would be sufficient, but it took 100 barrels, which had to be transported over a distance of several miles. But all this work was rewarded, for he took great pleasure to skate along with the Anglican minister, and soon arrived at the arena of peace officers and boys who worked at the radio station.
He was transferred to Fort Liard in 1932 and from there he undertook an expedition to 1.100 miles November 7 in order to visit the Indian people and he nearly drowned.
He traveled along the River Petitot, whose surface was frozen and he crossed the lake Betcho. "If I had used snowshoes as the guide who led the team of dogs, this would not have happened," he said. But I ran behind my toboggan pulled by dogs, when suddenly the ice broke under my weight. The Indian guide saved his life because he left the water before it slips into the lake.
The three resumed their journey across the lakes and Tathlina Kakisa and when some day they ran out of food, seeing no game, they decided to kill their dogs, but the next day they found the hidden meats by Indians the previous fall. A few days later, they met the Indians Kakisa.
When they arrived at Fort Providence, Father Turcotte continued his way alone through the MacKenzie River, Fort Simpson, up the Liard, he spent the Nahanni Butte and Christmas Day, he arrived at Fort Liard. He admits that the days of the trip was monotonous, without variety. Later, he was sent to Fort Norman, near the Great Bear Lake, then to Cameron Bay, near the Eldorado Mine at Port Radium mine that was explored and exploited by Charles and Gilbert Labine.
In 1940 he was transferred farther north, Coppermine, just below the Arctic, but he stayed there long enough to learn the Eskimo language as it was transferred back to Fort Simpson in 1941. He remained at Fort McMurray for 10 years, and ten years in Fort Smith, then he returned to Fort Simpson in 1963 for four years and finally back to Fort McMurray in 1967.
He was very happy during this half-century in the Far North. He added: "If I could start again, I do not think I would change my life, but as the years have gone by so fast!
Very affectionate tributes moved residents of different faiths, Father Turcotte said he has always been comfortable with everybody, no matter their beliefs.
Father Turcotte says he was taught respect for the opinions of others from an early age because he grew up in an environment where there were many non-Catholics.
His travels outside the Canadian High Arctic were not many since his arrival in the North in 1924. The sad events were held during two returns to the country: when his father died in 1934 and then his mother in 1952.
It was a holiday that allowed him to return in 1945, also in 1958 and 1967, to celebrate his 70th birthday, he was granted a trip to Rome and Fatima.
This year was an exceptional year for Father Turcotte, as he visits the Holy Land, a gift from friends of different faiths. "I especially look forward to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Galilee," he said.
But before that trip to the Holy Land, there will be a family reunion in Ottawa. He fervently hopes that a younger brother, also an Oblate Father, Father Armand Turcotte, and currently in Santiago, Chile, to come to Canada to attend this meeting.
Four of his sisters also entered into religion, two at the Gray Nuns, because, he says, "I told them so much about Gray Nuns Hospital in the North. Four of his six sisters, two married and two in religion, died, and one of his five brothers. But he hopes that all others will be in Ottawa including several nephews and nieces
Where will he, after his trip to the Holy Land? Father Turcotte replied: "Fort McMurray, of course! and I'll be back in early September, ready to continue my work everyday. "
The Missionaries of Laique de Notre-Dame
Miss Beatrice Turcotte joined the group The Work of the Home Inc.. founded to help missionaries. It was when we wanted to allow those who could not live by the rules, community, focus in companies say secular institute.
The Work of the Home Inc.. evolved in this direction and in 1954, thirteen years after its foundation, His Eminence Cardinal Leger, canonically erected in his diocese.
Our cousin, Beatrice (Joseph Turcotte Mérilda Beaudouin, St. Evariste, Beauce), was the first Director and still holds that position today.
Source: Collection of Madame Fernande Turcotte.
The Main Home
Source: Collection of Madame Fernande Turcotte.