The history of the
Catholic Church in Canada extends back to the arrival of the earliest European explorers. A French priest accompanied the explorer
Jacques Cartier, performing the first ever recorded Holy Mass on Canadian soil on July 7, 1534, on the shores of the
Gaspé Peninsula. It was followed by conversion of the
First Nations into the fold of Catholicism. Soon after, more and more religious congregations set foot in Canada especially among French-speaking present-day Quebec.
In this long history of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada, a number of deceased persons of the Church have had their life and work declared worthy of achieving one of the four stages of
canonization in the Catholic Church:
Servants of God;
Venerable;
Beatification (Blessed); and, for some, full recognition as a
Saint.
Marie-Catherine Simon de Longpré (Marie-Catherine of Saint Augustine) (1632–1668), Professed Religious of the Augustinian Sisters of Mercy of Jesus (Canadian Federation) (Manche, France – Québec, Canada)
Vasyl Velychkovsky (1903–1973), Professed Religious of the Redemptorists; Eparch of the "clandestine" Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church; Martyr (Ivano-Frankvisk, Ukraine – Manitoba, Canada)
Beatified: November 27, 2011 by Cardinal
Angelo Amato
Marie-Élisabeth Turgeon (1840–1881), Founder of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (Québec, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": October 9, 2013
Beatified: April 26, 2015 by Cardinal
Angelo Amato, S.D.B.
Venerables
Vital-Justin Grandin (1829–1902), Professed Priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Bishop of Saint-Albert (Mayenne, France – Alberta, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": December 15, 1966
Alfred Pampalon (1867–1896), Professed Priest of the Redemptorists (Québec, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": May 14, 1991
Élisabeth Bergeron (Mère Saint-Joseph) (1851–1936), Cofounder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Saint-Hyacinthe (Québec, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": January 12, 1996.
Délia Tétreault (Marie of the Holy Spirit) (1865–1941), Founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (Québec, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": December 18, 1997
Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière (1597–1659), Married Layperson of the Diocese of Le Mans; Cofounder of the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph (Sarthe – Charente-Maritime, France)
Declared "Venerable": July 6, 2007
Adolphe Châtillon (Théophanius-Léo) (1871–1929), Professed Religious of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Brothers) (Québec, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": April 2, 2011
Marie-Josephte Fitzbach (Marie of the Sacred Heart) (1806–1885), Widow; Founder of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Good Shepherd Sisters (Québec, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": June 28, 2012
Antoni Kowalczyk (1866–1947), Professed Religious of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (Krotoszyn, Poland – Alberta, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": March 27, 2013
Rosalie Cadron-Jetté (Mère of the Nativity) (1794–1864), Founder of the Misericordia Sisters (Québec, Canada)
Joseph Staub (Marie-Clément) (1876–1936), Professed Priest of the Assumptionists; Founder of the Sisters of Saint Joan of Arc (Haut-Rhin, France – Québec, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": April 3, 2014
Jeanne Mance (prob. 1606–1673) Layperson of the Archdiocese of Montréal (Haute-Marne, France – Québec, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": November 7, 2014
William Gagnon (1905–1972), Professed Religious of the Hospitallers of Saint John of God
Declared "Venerable": December 14, 2015
Aurélie Caouette (Catherine-Aurélie of the Precious Blood) (1833–1905), Founder of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood (Québec, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": December 1, 2016
Élisabeth Bruyère (1818–1876), Founder of the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa (Québec – Ontario, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": April 14, 2018
Ovide Charlebois (1862–1933), Professed Priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Apostolic Vicar of Keewatin; Titular Bishop of Berenice (Québec - Manitoba, Canada)
Declared "Venerable": November 28, 2019
Servants of God
Jeanne Le Ber (1662–1714), Layperson of the Archdiocese of Montréal (Québec, Canada)
Martyrs of French Revolution:
Anne Le Prince veuve le Blanc (1721–1794), Married Layperson of the Diocese of Quimper-Léon (Nova Scotia, Canada – Finistère, France)
Anastasie le Blanc (1760–1794), Layperson of the Diocese of Quimper-Léon (Nova Scotia, Canada – Finistère, France)
Michael Power (1804–1847), Bishop of Toronto (Nova Scotia – Ontario, Canada)
Stephen Eckert (Stephen of Dublin) (1869–1923), Professed Priest of the Franciscan Capuchins (Ontario, Canada – Wisconsin, United States)
Elzéar DeLamarre (1854–1925), Priest of the Diocese of Chicoutimi; Founder of the Antonian Sisters of Mary (Québec, Canada)
Vénérance Morin-Rouleau (Bernarda) (1832–1929), Founder of the Sisters of Providence of Chile [now part of the Sisters of Providence of Montréal] (Québec, Canada – Santiago, Chile)
Léon Pratte (1864–1930), Priest of the Diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe (Québec, Canada)
Gérard Raymond (1912–1932), Seminarian of the Archdiocese of Québec (Québec, Canada)
Louis Doumain (1920–1944), Priest of the Diocese of Viviers; Martyr (Alberta, Canada – Saalekreis, Germany)
Eugène Prévost (1860–1946), Priest and Founder of the Congregation of the Sacerdotal Fraternity and of the Oblate Sisters of Bethany (Québec – Maine-et-Loire, Canada)
Albert L'Heureux (Alphonse) (1894–1947), Professed Priest of the Trappists; Martyr (Québec, Canada – Hebei, China)
Louis Émond (1876–1949), Layperson of the Archdiocese of Québec (Québec, Canada)
Victor Lelièvre (1876–1956), Professed Priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (Ille-et-Vilaine, France – Québec, Canada)
Pierre Fallaize (1887–1964), Professed Priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Auxiliary Bishop of MacKenzie (Calvados, France – Northwest Territories, Canada)
Georges-Philias Vanier (1888–1967), Married Layperson of the Archdiocese of Ottawa; Governor-General of Canada (Québec – Ottawa, Canada)
Gilberte Lapierre (Marie-Claire) (1895–1979), Professed Religious of the Poor Clare Nuns (Québec, Canada)
Dorian LaPlante (Flavian) (1907–1981), Professed Religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross (Québec, Canada – Chittagong, Bangladesh)
Catherine de Hueck Doherty (1896–1985), Married Layperson of the Diocese of Pembroke; Founder of the Madonna House Apostolate (Nizhegorodskaya oblast’, Russia – Ontario, Canada)
Pauline Archer–Vanier (1898–1991), Married Layperson of the Archdiocese of Ottawa (Québec, Canada – Oise, France)
Colette Lamontaigne Samson (1923–1991), Married Layperson of the Archdiocese of Québec (Québec, Canada)
Carmelina Tarantino (Carmelina of the Cross) (1937–1992), Professed Religious of the Passionist Sisters of Saint Paul of the Cross (Naples, Italy – Ontario, Canada)
Julienne Dallaire (Julienne du Rosaire) (1911–1995), Founder of the Dominican Missionary Adorers (Québec, Canada)
Emiliano Tardif [Émilien] (1928–1999), Professed Priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart; Founder of the Community of the Servants of the Living Christ (Québec, Canada – Córdoba, Argentina)
Candidates for sainthood
Nicolas Viel (d. 1625), Professed Priest of the Franciscan Friars Minor (Recollects) (Coutances, France – Québec, Canada)
Auhaitsique [Ahuntsic] (d. 1625), Layperson of the Archdiocese of Québec (Québec, Canada)
Joseph Chiwatenhwa (1602-1640) and Marie Aonetta (d.1650?), Married Laypersons of the Archdiocese of Québec (Québec, Canada)[2]
Barthélemy Vimont (1594-1667), Professed Priest of the Jesuits (Lisieux, France - Québec, Canada)
Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot (1611-1693), Professed Priest of the Jesuits (Châtillon-sur-Seine, France – Québec, Canada)
Claude Pelletier (Didace) (1657-1699), Professed Religious of the Franciscan Friars Minor (Recollects) (Québec, Canada)[3]
Esther Wheelwright (Maria Joseph of the Infant Jesus) (1696–1780), Professed Religious of the Ursulines of Québec (Maine, USA – Québec, Canada)
Frances Margaret Allen (1784–1819), Professed Religious of the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph (Vermont, USA – Québec, Canada)
Esther Pariseau (Marie-Joseph of the Sacred Heart) (1823–1902), Professed Religious of the Sisters of Providence of Montréal (Québec, Canada – Washington, USA)
Éléonore Potvin (Marie-Zita of Jesus) (1865-1903), Founder of the Servants of Jesus-Marie (Canada)
Jean-Baptiste Rouvière (1881–1913), Professed Priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Martyr (Lozères, France – Northwest Territories, Canada)
Guillaume Le Roux (1885–1913), Professed Priests of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Martyr (Finistère, France – Northwest Territories, Canada)
Alexis-Louis Mangin (1856-1920), Priest of the Archdiocese of Ottawa; Founder of the Servants of Jesus-Marie (Canada)
Marie Bibeau (Marie-Anne de Jésus) (1865–1924), Founder of the Little Franciscans of Mary (Lower Canada, Canada – Massachusetts, USA)
Marie Rose Ferron (1902-1936), Layperson of the Diocese of Providence (Canada-USA)
Emma Tétu (Marie-Domitille) (1887–1942), Professed Religious of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (Québec, Canada)
Alphonse Dubé (1890–1943), Professed Priest of the Jesuits (Québec, Canada)
Prosper Bernard (1902–1943), Professed Priest of the Jesuits (Québec, Canada)
Armand Lalonde (1904–1943), Professed Priest of the Jesuits (Québec, Canada)
Rose Prince (1915-1949), Layperson of the Diocese of Prince George (Canada)[5][6]
Léon Arcand (Didace) (1886–1952), Professed Priest of the Franciscan Friars Minor (Québec, Canada – Shandong, China)
Henri Roy (1898-1965), Professes Priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Founder of the Secular Institute "Pius X" (Maine, USA - Quebec, Canada)
James Arthur Mackinnon (1932–1965), Priest of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society; Martyr (Nova Scotia, Canada – Monte Plata, Dominican Republic)[7]
Martyrs of Maseru, Lesotho:
Almanzar Joseph Ménard (1906–1966), Professed Priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (Québec, Canada)
Raynald Beauregard (1931–1976), Professed Priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (Québec, Canada)
Maurice Lefebvre Beaudry (1922–1971), Professed Priest of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Martyr (Québec, Canada – La Paz, Bolivia)
Martyrs of Uganda:
Jean-Paul Demers (1910–1971), Priest of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) (Québec, Canada)
Gérard Perrault (1915–1971), Priest of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) (Québec, Canada)
Wilfred Lépine (1923–1980), Priest of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) (Québec, Canada)
Raoul Joseph Léger (1951–1981), Layperson of the Archdiocese of Moncton; Lay Missionary of the Québec Foreign Missionary Society; Martyr (New Brunswick, Canada – Guatemala City, Guatemala)
Douglas William Main (John) (1926–1982), Professed Priest of the Benedictines (Olivetan Congregation) (London, United Kingdom – Québec, Canada)
Claudia Murphy (Sybil) (1930-1996), Professed Religious of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (Nova Scotia, Canada – Cape Coast, Ghana)
Mary Josephine Mulligan (1920–1996), Founder of the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate (Québec, Canada)
Jean-Luc Hudon (Bernardin-Jean) (1936-1998), Professed Religious of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Brothers); Martyr (Québec, Canada – Sud-Est, Haiti)
Martin John Royackers (1959-2001), Professed Priest of the Jesuits; Martyr (Ontario, Canada – Saint Mary, Jamaica)
William Lloyd Ryan (1917–2003), Priest of the Diocese of Hamilton; Founder of the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate (Ontario – Québec, Canada)
Richard Émile Joyal (1951-2013), Professed Priest of the Society of Mary (Marianists); Martyr (Manitoba, Canada – Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
Martyrs of Rwanda:
François Cardinal (1942–1992),professed religious, Brothers of Christian Instruction (De La Mennais Brothers) (Québec, Canada)
Claude Simard (1933–1994), professed priest, Congregation of Holy Cross (Québec, Canada)
Guy Pinard (1945–1997), priest of the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa (White Fathers) (Québec, Canada)