Jean-Charles Prince was born in Saint-Grégoire, Lower Canada, on February 13, 11804. After his studies in the College of Nicolet and the minor seminary of Saint-Hyacinthe, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Lartigue in Montreal on September 23, 1826. He was secretary to Bishop Lartigue in 1826-1830, director of the major seminary of Saint-Hyacinthe from 1831 to 1840, then a canon of the cathedral chapter in Montreal and director of the newspaper Mélanges religieux. On Jul 5, 1844, Pope Gregory XVI appointed him titular bishop of Martyropolis and coadjutor of Montreal, a position he retained until his appointment as bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe in 1852.
Between 1841 and 1852, Bishop Prince was in occasional contact with the Oblates in Montreal. His role, however, was somewhat overshadowed alongside Bishop Ignace Bourget. At the end of 1843, Father Adrien Telmon, sensing that an Oblate foundation in Bytown was imminent, consulted Canon Prince who advised him to await an express request from Bishop Patrick Phelan, the administrator of Kingston, and not to make a move during the intense cold of winter. In February 1846, Bishop Prince went to give the sacrament of Confirmation at the end of a retreat preached by the Oblates in the parish of Sainte-Thérèse de Blainville. During a pastoral visit to Bytown in 1846, the bishop blessed the chapel of Notre-Dame de Bon Secours, which had been built in Hull by Father Eusèbe Durocher for the purpose of ministering to the woodcutters. In that same year, he erected the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart in the convent of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary in Longueuil and he intervened in a misunderstanding between the parish priest, Father Brassard, and Father Allard who was considered to have too much influence in the Sisters’ convent. In 1846 also, he was one of the bishops from eastern Canada to sign the petition sent to the Congregation of Propaganda in Rome to ask for the erection of the diocese of Bytown and the appointment of Father Guigues as bishop of that see.
In 1847, Bishop Prince wrote to Archbishop Signay of Quebec and to Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson Bay Company to promote the establishment of an Oblate foundation in James Bay. On February 23, 1849, he blessed the Way of the Cross in the chapel of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre in Montreal and, on June 29, 1851, he laid the first stone of the church of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre that was to be built by the Oblates. In 1851 he was delegated by the first provincial council of Quebec to request that Pius IX should approve the Acts of the Council. He passed through France on that occasion and was assistant to Bishop de Mazenod in Viviers, on November 23, for the Episcopal ordination of Bishop Alexandre Taché, o.m.i., He then spent some days with Bishop de Mazenod in Marseilles. He celebrated Mass in the church of Le Calvaire on December 1 and afterwards he dined with Bishop de Mazenod and Bishop Taché.
During the few years of his episcopate in Saint-Hyacinthe, Bishop Prince founded about twenty parishes. He brought the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, the Dominicans and the teaching Brothers from Europe to his diocese. He died on May 5, 1860. From 1852 to 1860 it seems that he had very little relations with the Oblates.
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
