Born: Échelles, Savoie, France, February 20, 1817.
Took the habit: N.-D. de l’Osier, September 7, 1853.
Vows: Marseilles, February 17, 1856 (N. 408).
Died: Fort Providence, Canada, May 2, 1890.
Joseph Salasse was born in Échelles, diocese of Chambéry, France, on February 20, 1817. His parents were Joseph Étienne Salasse, a metalwork craftsman, and Jeanne Baptiste Bocquet. He began his novitiate in Notre-Dame de l’Osier on September 7, 1853. In his report each month, the novice master, Father Florent Vandenberghe gave details regarding each of the ten novice Brothers but he mentions Brother Salasse only in March 1854. Salasse: “is doing well, he has some education and is devout, he is learning cooking, a lively and somewhat brusque character; accepts correction, reasonable mysticism.”
Brother Salasse lived at Notre-Dame de la Garde from 1854 to 1857 and took perpetual vows in the presence of Bishop de Mazenod on February 17, 1856. No doubt what is written in the Personnel register of 1862 is the opinion of his educators: “Salasse, health good, pastry cook, rare virtue, sincere piety, a very good character.” In 1857 he received his obedience for the mission of Saint-Boniface. Previously he had learned the trade of printer. He arrived in Red River in May 1857 and left immediately for Lac-la-Biche, Alberta (1857-1862). He then worked in Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan (1862-1864), Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories (1865), returned to Lac-la-Biche (1865-1869), Hay River (1869), Fort Providence, Northwest Territories (1869-1890) and there he worked as a blacksmith and mechanic. He spent two years in Fort Good Hope (1871-1872) to help in the building of the church, On August 8, 1876, Bishop Clut wrote to Father Joseph Fabre: “Brother Salasse, almost sixty years of age and small in stature, gives the greatest service in all the trades at which he works, because he is, at one and the same time, blacksmith, metal worker, clock mender, mechanic etc. … He works for all the missions of our vicariate.”
Brother Salasse died in Fort Providence on May 2, 1890, the first Oblate to die and to be buried in this mission.
Yvon Beaudoin
and Gaston Carrière, o.m.i.
