Born: Auxerre (Yvonne), March 23, 1805?
Taking of the habit: Marseilles, September 30, 1837
Perpetual oblation: September 26, 1841 (No. 88)
Died: Montreal, July 5, 1874.
Basile Fastray was born in Auxerre, diocese of Sens, March 23, 1805? He began his novitiate at Le Calvaire at Marseilles, September 30, 1837 under the name Pierre Basile. H made his first oblation as a lay brother November 1, 1838 and his perpetual oblation, with a dispensation from the five years requirement, September 26, 1841. He left immediately for Canada with the first Oblates sent to North America.
He stayed at Saint-Hilaire (1841-1842) and at Longueuil (1842-1850) where, in these two villages he taught school. From 1866 to 1874, he was at Saint-Pierre-Apôtre, in Montreal, Kahnawake, Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Montreal. It was at Montreal that he died July 5, 1874. His remains were laid to rest in the Oblate cemetery at Richelieu.
Father Tortel, his superior at the end of this life, wrote: “The particular stamp borne by the life and death of Brother Basil was that of a tender and insatiable piety. He literally hungered and thirsted for God and the things of God, the Holy Eucharist and the adoration due this sacrament, the holy Virgin and devotion to her. By his words and actions, he lavished his reverence on anything that was sacred in some way. He seems to have drawn from the heart of our beloved and venerated Founder a zest of the religious life that never flagged and which never ceased producing, during this lengthy period of dedication begun in 1837, excellent fruits of holiness.”
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
