Born at Beaufay (Sarthe) France, 28 August 1825
Took the habit in N. D. de l’Osier on 24 March 1848
Oblation in Marseilles on 25 March 1849 (No.247)
Priestly ordination in England, on 30 March 1850
Died in Liverpool, on 5 February 1862.
Pierre Francois-Xavier Dutertre was born in Beaufay in the diocese of Le Mans on 28 August 1825. His parents were Anne Lefeuvre and Pierre François Dutertre. While he was studying in the major seminary of Le Mans he heard a talk given by Father Léonard Baveux and decided to become a missionary. He entered the novitiate on 24 March 1848 at Notre-Dame de l’Osier and seven months later finished his novitiate at the Marseilles major seminary where he made his oblation before Father Tempier on 25 March 1849. It was however only on 27 March that he was passed by the Council, with the following note: “Dutertre: admitted to religious profession, on the ground of his good qualities as a religious and his above average talents and, lastly, for his courage in leaving his parents who put all kinds of obstacles to the realization of his wishes.”
For reasons of health he was sent to Sicklinghall in the autumn of 1849. In a letter to Father Casimir Aubert dated 14 February 1850 Father Charles Bellon gives the results of the scholastics examinations and, after the name of Dutertre, he wrote: “ Very good.” He was ordained priest on 30 March 1850. On the 28 August 1851 Bishop de Mazenod asked Father Casimir Aubert, the British provincial, to send Father Alexandre Trudeau to Canada and to replace him in Aldenham and Bridgenorth with Father Dutertre. Father Dutertre stayed there from 1851-1852. In November 1852 he went with Father Cooke to Scotland to make the foundation that eventually was made at Galashiels. But it was especially in Liverpool that Father Dutertre did his work, first in 1850 as one of the founding members, and then from 1852 until his death. When the Founder visited Holy Cross, Liverpool, in 1857 he says: “We were soon installed in our house where the enormous Father Dutertre came a little later on his return from the church.”
In 1862 he contracted typhus while serving the people. The ms. letter from Holy Cross notifying his death to the Province is found enclosed in the pages of the Sicklinghall Codex. “He died at 1 o’clock this morning the victim of a most violent fever which he had caught in the discharge of his sacred duties. For nine days he bore with admirable patience the burning heat of this most painful disease.” In the Personnel 1862-1863 we read after his name: “His whole priestly life was consecrated to the poor of Ireland in Liverpool. He died a victim of his zeal, amidst universal regret.” He was 36 years old. Three thousand people attended his funeral. He is buried in the Liverpool Catholic Cemetery at Ford, where a large cross has been erected over the graves of a number of priests who died in similar circumstances.
Yvon Beaudoin
and Michael Hughes, o.m.i.
