Born: Vieux-Condé (Nord), France, February 9, 1828.
Took the habit: N.-D. de l’Osier, October 31, 1849.
Vows: N.-D. de l’Osier, November 1, 1850 (N. 285).
Priestly ordination: Marseilles, October 5, 1852.
Died: Montreal, Canada, March 10, 1895.
Hector Mauroit, brother of Léon and Mansuet, was born on February 9, 1928, in Vieux-Condé, diocese of Cambrai, France. His parents were Theodore Mauroit and Agathe Merlin. He studied in Tourcoing College (1842-1846) and was then a guardian in the high school in Dunkirk (1846-1847) and Arras, while following university courses at the same time. He began his novitiate in Notre-Dame de l’Osier on October 31, 1849 and took vows there on November 1, 1850. In his report for February-March 1850, Father Jacques Santoni, novice master, wrote: “Mauroit, excellent candidate, he follows in the footsteps of Brother Logegaray.” In the general council meeting of October 20, 1850, he had been admitted to vows with the following note: “University graduate, converted from an apparently mundane life-style. During the fifteen months since then, his good conduct and solid virtue have been evident. His character is excellent, above normal talents, he will be good for teaching or preaching.”
He studied theology in the major seminary in Marseilles (1850-1852). According to the report of Father Jean Marchal, moderator of scholastics, he “was severely tested during his first year in the seminary: serious and difficult study, the seminary curriculum, directors who kept their distance, he found everything difficult… It took two months for him to settle in. He is easily tempted to extremes: fervour or distaste, great joy or sadness.” Bishop de Mazenod ordained him priest on October 5, 1852 and immediately sent him to Buffalo as teacher in the Oblate College, which was there from 1852 to 1855. He then went to Saint-Pierre-Apôtre in Montreal (1855) and to the college in Ottawa (1855-1856), then to Saint-Sauveur, Quebec (1856-1857), to the bishop’s residence in Ottawa (1857-1864), and once again to Montreal (1864-1866). He was also provincial treasurer (1859-1865). Afterwards he was assigned to the University of Ottawa (1866-1868), then Saint-Sauveur, Quebec (1868-1869) and then he taught at the novitiate in Lachine (1869-1870) after which he returned to the University of Ottawa (1870-1874). He was superior in Maniwaki from 1874-1891 and during that time he ministered to the missions of Sainte-Famille-d’Aumond and Saint-Cajetan. In 1891 he was sent to Montreal.
The author of his necrology note remarks that: “he had the particularly precious gift for a provincial treasurer of keeping his account and business books admirably”. He did likewise in Maniwaki, and he arranged the archives and the account books, put the different registers in order and re-arranged the Codex historicus, which had been sadly neglected. He was, above all, a zealous pastor and much loved by the faithful.
He spent the last three months of his life in Montreal Hospital, where he died on March 10, 1895. His remains lie in the Oblate cemetery in Richelieu.
Yvon Beaudoin
and Gaston Carrière, o.m.i.
