Born: Edinburgh, Scotland, March 14, 1824
Took the habit: Longueuil, Canada, March 20, 1848
Vows: Longueuil, March 26, 1849 (No.250)
Dispensed from vows: September 4, 1850.
John Joseph Collins was born was born in Edinburgh on March 14, 1824. He began his novitiate in Longueuil on March 20, 1848 , under the direction of Jean-Francois Allard and there he took vows on March 26, 1849. It seems, however, that it was not until the following day, March 27, that the general council admitted him to vows, together with Thomas Horace Pinet “according to information provided by the priest who admitted them.”
There is no further mention of him in Oblate sources, except for the minutes of the general council on September 4, 1815. The secretary wrote on that day: “Bishop Guigues proposed that the lay brother ‘Colin’ be dismissed from the Congregation. The person in question is Scottish by birth and was working in the seminary in Bytown. This Brother is very irregular, he is a difficult character. He is continually sowing cockle among those with whom he lives. His dismissal was voted unanimously.”
Without doubt the person in question is the scholastic Brother John Collins. Otherwise Bishop Guigues would have dismissed him without recourse to the general council. There is no Brother named Colin who entered the novitiate either in England or in Canada before 1850. Either Bishop de Mazenod or the secretary general must have read “Colin, lay Brother” because the handwriting of Bishop Guigues was often indecipherable and the Founder did not keep his letters.
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
