Brother A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used ende ...

Marie-Victorin, F.S.C. (; April 3, 1885 – July 15, 1944), was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

member of

Brothers of the Christian Schools The De La Salle Brothers, officially named the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (; ; ) abbreviated FSC, is a Catholic lay religious congregation of pontifical right for men founded in France by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (16 ...

and a noted

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada.

Marie-Victorin gained worldwide fame as the author of Flore laurentienne and father of the Botanical Garden of Montreal.

Biography

He was born Joseph-Louis-Conrad Kirouac to Cyrille Kirouac, a wealthy merchant, and Philomène Luneau in,

Kingsey Falls, Quebec Kingsey Falls, Quebec is a town in Centre-du-Québec, Quebec, Canada, with a population of 1,946 at the Canada 2016 Census, 2016 census. It is 30 km east of Drummondville and west of Quebec Route 116, Route 116. One of the largest employers ...

. Prior to taking

religious vows Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views. In the Buddhist tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, many different kinds of r ...

and becoming Brother Marie-Victorin, he was known as Conrad. Although Brother Victorin is on record as having suggested that

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

build its own

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

s as early as 1919,Le frère Marie-Victorin : l’âme du Jardin botanique
by Yves Gingras, in ''Quatre-Temps'', vol. 30, June 2006; pp. 16-19 the Garden was not authorized until 1929 when Montreal Mayor

Camillien Houde Camillien Houde (August 13, 1889 – September 11, 1958) was a Quebec politician, a Member of Parliament, and a four-time mayor of Montreal. He is of the few Canadian politicians to have served at all three levels of government. During Worl ...

approved it, with construction beginning in 1931. Subsequent administrations, both municipal and provincial, opposed the Garden as a

boondoggle A boondoggle is a project that is considered a waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations. Etymology "Boondoggle" was the name of the newspaper of the Roosevelt Troop of the Boy Sco ...

; however, Brother Victorin continued to champion its cause, promoting it at every opportunity, leading specimen-collection expeditions, recruiting Henry Teuscher as its designer, and protecting it from being converted into a military flight school, even during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Brother Victorin is also known for his writings: his Flore laurentienne is a botanical record of all species indigenous to southern Quebec, and was the first such record to be compiled. He also wrote the preface to an historical biography of another fifth cousin, ''Zephirin Paquet. Sa famille, sa Vie, son Oeuvre. Essai de Monographie Familiale'', par frère Alcas. Brother Victorin died in Montreal in a car accident in July 1944, and he was entombed at the

Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery (, ) is a rural cemetery located in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which was founded in 1854. The entrance and the grounds run along a part of Côte-des-Neiges Ro ...

in Montreal. A building at the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

, where he had taught botany, was subsequently named for him.

Tribute

Brother Marie-Victorin is one of the most honored Quebec personalities of the 20th century. At the Commission toponymy Quebec, a query on Marie-Victorin gives 69 results: mountains, lakes, roads, parks, buildings, etc., honor his memory. The Marie-Victorin Rosa (

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

), developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was named in his honour. To honour the centennial of his birth in 1985, a park was established in his hometown of

Kingsey Falls Kingsey Falls, Quebec is a town in Centre-du-Québec, Quebec, Canada, with a population of 1,946 at the Canada 2016 Census, 2016 census. It is 30 km east of Drummondville and west of Quebec Route 116, Route 116. One of the largest employers ...

, named Parc Marie-Victorin. Originally 3

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s, it has expanded to nearly 30 acres, with volunteers and a small permanent staff. The park has been a leader in the province for

horticultural Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

development in the

green movement Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. Wall 2010. p. 12-13. It ...

. In the early 1990s, a private high school in Montréal was opened and named for him. The school is still open but its name was changed in 2006. Bro. Victorin has been inducted as a member of the

Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame The Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame, was located at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, honoured Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to society in science and engineering. It also promoted role m ...

. He is fictionalized as a central character in

André Forcier André Forcier (born Marc-André Forcier on July 19, 1947) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. His work has been linked to Latin American magic realism by its use of fantasy but is firmly rooted in Quebec's reality. His unromanticized, ...

's 2019 film ''

Forgotten Flowers ''Forgotten Flowers'' () is a Canadian comedy film, directed by André Forcier and released in 2019. The film stars Roy Dupuis as Albert Payette, an agronomist who has lived in seclusion making mead since becoming disillusioned with his forme ...

(Les fleurs oubliées)'', in which he is portrayed by

Yves Jacques Yves Jacques OC (born 10 May 1956) is a Canadian film, television and stage actor.Yves Jacques ...

. He is also portrayed by

Alexandre Goyette Alexandre Goyette (born April 11, 1979) is a Canadian actor and writer from Quebec, most noted as the writer of the stage play ''King Dave'' and the screenwriter and star of its 2016 film adaptation.Brendan Kelly"Podz's King Dave: One-shot film ...

in Lyne Charlebois's 2023 film '' Tell Me Why These Things Are So Beautiful (Dis-moi pourquoi ces choses sont si belles)''.Émilie Côté
"Les leçons d’un grand amour"
''

La Presse is a French-language online newspaper published daily in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1884, it is now owned by an independent nonprofit trust. ' was formerly a broadsheet daily, considered a newspaper of record in Canada. Its Sunday edi ...

'', January 13, 2023.

External links

Archive , Brother Marie-Victorin: a heritage between nature and literature
quotes, analyses, audio documents, Radio-Canada Info, July 2019 *Billings, E. (Elkanah), 1820-1876, Geological Survey of Canada, and Geological Survey of Canada. Catalogues of the Silurian Fossils of the Island of Anticosti: With Descriptions of Some New Genera And Species. Montreal: Dawson brothers, 1866. *Audet, R. (2015)
Frère Marie-Victorin, environnementaliste.
Bulletin d'histoire politique, p. 17 (French)
Marie-Victorin herbarium
- Herbier Marie-Victorin (Wikipedia French)
Cegep Marie-Victorin
The Intercultural and International Education Centre

Gallery

File:Marie-Victorin laboratoire.jpg, M.-V. and students, Faculty of Science of

Laval University Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxe ...

's branch in

, around 1925 File:Jaquette_de_l'ouvrage,_édition_1935.jpg, '' Flore laurentienne'' cover of 1st edition, 1935

References

Also see

*Marie-Victorin Kirouac, Frère Marie-Victorin (1885-1944)
Anticosti, land with immense spaces, the sea all around, and a social world of the 1920s gone forever.
Anticosti/UdeM archives, 14 photos (French) * J.-C. Guédon

(1981) (French) *Louis-Philippe Audet
Marie-Victorin. Ses idées pédagogiques
(Québecc Éditions de l'Érable, 1942) (French) * Robert Rumilly
Le Frère Marie-Victorin et son temps
(Montréal, Frères des Écoles chrétiennes, 1949) (French)
Kirouac Family Association Inc.
(French)]
From Conrad Kirouac at Marie-Victorin
Université de Montréal (French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirouac, Marie-Victorin 1885 births 1944 deaths People from Centre-du-Québec De La Salle Brothers Roman Catholic religious brothers Academic staff of the Université de Montréal 20th-century Canadian botanists Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Accidental deaths in Quebec Road incident deaths in Canada Canadian people of Breton descent Catholic clergy scientists Burials at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery