In 1851 Father Henri Faraud first visited Fort Resolution. In 1856 he began the building of a little chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph. This Fort, situated at more than 500 kilometres from Lake Athabaska and 1,000 kilometres from Île-à-la-Crosse is situated on Orignal Island where the Slave River flows into the lake, one of the biggest lakes in Canada.
Fort Resolution
The Fort was frequented by Amerindians of the Slave tribe and by other tribes as well. The first resident missionaries, in 1858, were Fathers Henri Faraud, Germain Eynard, Zéphérin Gascon, Brothers Jean Perréard and Joseph Kearney, and later Father Henri Grollier who, in 1859, left from there to go down the Mackenzie river as far as Norman and Good Hope. Bishop Vital Grandin visited there in 1861 and gave this deion of the mission: “a poor timber house, roofed with thatch, with a cross on top, and surrounded by some native cabins.” In his report to the 1870 general chapter, Bishop Isidore Clut wrote: “For twenty years Father Gascon has been in charge of the Saint Joseph mission. His great zeal for the instruction of his people, mostly half-breeds and Amerindians, has resulted in the formation of a model Christian community.”
The Oblates of this mission made regular visits to many other places and covered great distances: Saint Anne at the mouth of the Hay river, Saint Vincent de Paul to the east of Great Slave Lake, Saint Michael in Fort Rae etc. On May 13, 1862 this mission, which was in the diocese of Saint Boniface, became part of the Vicariate apostolic of Athabaska-Mackenzie (Mackenzie in 1901). A boarding school was opened in 1903 and a hospital in 1939, under the direction of the Montreal Sisters of Charity. The Oblates left the mission in 1990.
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
