Rémi Gaulin (30 June 1787 – 8 May 1857) was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest and bishop who spent time in the service of Bishop

Joseph-Octave Plessis Joseph-Octave Plessis (March 3, 1763 – December 4, 1825) was a Canadians, Canadian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic clergyman from Quebec. He was the first archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec after the diocese was elevated to ...

. Plessis ordained Gaulin in 1811 and appointed him

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

to Alexander MacDonell in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

. In 1815 he became a missioner in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

. In 1840 he succeeded Macdonnell as bishop of the Diocese of Kingston.

Life

Rémi Gaulin was born 30 June 1787 in

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, ...

to François and Françoise Amiot Gaulin. His father was a cooper. Rémi Gaulin was the great-grandnephew of Antoine Gaulin, missionary to the Abenakis and

Miꞌkmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Mi'kmaw'' or ''Mi'gmaw''; ; , and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Bru ...

Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...

and Nova Scotia. Rémi studied at the

Séminaire de Québec The Seminary of Quebec (French: , ) is a Catholic Church, Catholic community of Secular clergy, diocesan priests in Quebec City founded by Bishop François de Laval, the first bishop of New France in 1663. History The Séminaire de Québec is ...

and then at the Séminaire de Nicolet. In the summer of 1811, he accompanied Bishop

, as secretary, on a pastoral visit to the Îles de la Madeleine and

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

; and was ordained the following October. Father Gaulin was assigned to assist Bishop Alexander Macdonell as a curate in Glengarry County in Upper Canada. Gaulin was tri-lingual, speaking English, French, and

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

. Macdonnell had been

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

for many of his parishioners, who were former soldiers who had emigrated from

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, he formed them into the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles to defend Upper Canada. Gaulin saw service as a chaplain. He was put in charge of the parishes of St. Raphael and St. Andrews. In May 1815, Gaulin returned to Quebec in order to accompany Bishop Plessis on a pastoral visit to the missions on the

Gulf of St Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence is a gulf that fringes the shores of the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada, plus the islands Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, ...

. In July, Plessis assigned Gaulin to be the first resident pastor of St. Ninian's parish in

Antigonish, Nova Scotia Antigonish ( ; ) is a town in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, Canada. The town is home to St. Francis Xavier University and the oldest continuous Highland games outside Scotland. It is approximately 160 kilometres (100 miles) northeast of Halif ...

, with responsibility for Margaree and Chéticamp, Cape Breton. He subsequently transferred his base to Chéticamp and by October 1816 was serving the Acadians of that community and of Margaree, and the Scots living in the

Bras d'Or Lake Bras d'Or Lake (Mi'kmaq language, Mi'kmawi'simk: Pitupaq) is an irregular estuary in the centre of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. It has a connection to the open sea, and is tidal. It also has inflows of fresh water from rivers, ma ...

district. In July 1819 he took charge of the

Arichat, Nova Scotia Arichat is an unincorporated village in the Municipality of the County of Richmond, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the primary settlement on Isle Madame, off the southeastern tip of Cape Breton Island. Toponym The name derives from a Mi'kmaq wo ...

mission. The diocese of Kingston was largely Scots and Irish. Macdonnell sought a

coadjutor The term "coadjutor" (literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadjutor bishop ...

who was neither. Three potential candidates declined before Bishop Jean-Jacques Lartigue of

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 ...

suggested Gaulin. In 1833, Gaulin was consecrated as a bishop and made coadjutor to Macdonell with the right of succession. Gaulin became the bishop in the diocese of Kingston in 1840 when MacDonell died.

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

saw an influx of Irish immigrants, many of whom did not attend church regularly. At the instigation of Bishop Gaulin, Bishop

Ignace Bourget Ignace Bourget (; October 30, 1799 – June 8, 1885) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest who held the title of Bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876. Born in Lévis, Quebec, in 1799, Bourget entered the clergy at an early age, undertook several ...

led the French-Canadian hierarchy to petition for a new diocese. Michael Power, the vicar general of Montreal, was chosen as the first bishop of the Diocese of Toronto. Power had been born in Nova Scotia of Irish parents and spoke French. Bishop Gaulin said, "This gentleman is sufficiently Irish to be well thought of here and sufficiently Canadian to live up to all we might expect of him." Bishop Power died of typhus in 1847, contracted while ministering to the sick. Beginning in 1841 Gaulin's physical and mental health began to deteriorate. Bishop Bourget brought Gaulin to Montreal and appointed Patrick Phelan as coadjutor of Kingston. The latter was ordained bishop on 20 August 1843 and administered the diocese from then onwards. Bishop Gaulin died on 8 May 1857 in Sainte-Philomène, near Montreal. He is buried in St. Mary's Cathedral, Kingston.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaulin, Remi 1787 births 1857 deaths People from Quebec City Roman Catholic bishops of Kingston, Canada Pre-Confederation Quebec people Burials at St. Mary's Cathedral, Kingston 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Canada