The Personality of Father Marchildon

So far we have presented the facts about the life of Father Marchildon from his birth to his death and burial; the circumstances of his family life, his education, his entrance into the Dominican Order, his priestly ordination and his various ministries.

We shall now have a look at the man himself, his personality, his qualities and virtues that explain his extraordinary influence on generations of people. We could do this in many ways. I shall begin by citing the testimony of close relatives, who can remember his youth.

After the death of Father Marchildon I went to Batiscan to visit the paternal home where he was born and grew up. I met with relatives of his, reminisced and learned many facets of Father in his early years. I even met an old gentleman, Mr. Hermil Lise, a one-time neighbor of the Marchildons, who remembered Father as a great preacher. "Father Marchildon," he said, "was a fine orator. When he preached at Batiscan, the church filled up. Ah, what a fine preacher he was." I also visited relatives of Father in Montreal. Back home, I corresponded with some of his nieces, in quest of further information. I will now share with you some excerpts from such letters.

Letter from Rose-Alba Fugere, niece of Father (February 2, 1972):

In his youth he was always docile and good to his parents, and his brothers and sister. He always had a spirit of sacrifice. And later, when he was ordained a priest and visited his relatives, if he had a favor to obtain, he would sleep on the floor, a wooden floor, and place a piece of fire wood (a log) under his head for a pillow. I have seen him do that more than once. He imposed on himself all sorts of sacrifices, either to obtain a healing or any need people recommended to him, like being out of work or having an infirmity.

Letter from Angeline Marenger, a niece, whom he affectionately called "soeurette" (little sister) - May 12, 1972:

When visiting his relatives, he would bless us but he had a special attention to children. He seemed to attract them with no effort. People loved him to the point that wherever he went in his family, he attracted people from all around. Strangers came to visit him as if they knew him.

For my part, there is one thing I remember. I was only eight years old but I was so impressed that I never forgot it. We had gone to visit an infirm aunt at Saint Stanislaus de Champlain in the area of "Cote Saint Paul." The news had preceded Father so that a way had to be cleared in the crowd to let him enter. Infirms of all sorts had come to see him. Father Marchildon had asked that three buckets of fresh water be brought in. He had them placed in the center of the room. He blessed them with a holy image of Saint Vincent Ferrer, said some prayers and had those present say prayers. I well remember because it was my responsibility to pass the blessed water around with my little cup. My aunt, who was the mother of Father Marchildon, said that there were miracles at this place. But I cannot verify it for you because all those people are dead today. His mother was bringing me up and I remember that he had repeated that ceremony on many occasions.

Letter from Mrs. Jean-Charles Lacoursiere (her husband is the nephew of Father Marchildon). Letter of May 14, 1972.

Mrs. Yolande Bordeleau obtained a miracle or a favor, I cannot say. At that time she lived at Lac St. Jean and had lost her voice completely. She traveled by bus twice a week from Lac St. Jean to the hospital in Chicoutimi, from January to June 1943. There she received electric treatments unsuccessfully. The 12th of June she received a telegram announcing the death of grandfather Leblanc (stepfather of Father Marchildon) and she came to Batiscan for the funeral of grandfather. The next day, June 13 (1943), uncle arrived to celebrate grandfather's funeral. Seeing that Yolande was not speaking, he told her not to be discouraged, that she would speak before long. The 15th of June, the day of the funeral, she began to speak and the volume of her voice increased from day to day. By the end of the week she spoke normally and never returned to the hospital for her throat.

Even among his own, Father Marchildon soon acquired the reputation of a miracle worker, a holy man endowed by God with special gifts. A prelude to a reputation that was to grow enormously during his ministry at Saint Anne Shrine. He would exhort people to pray to Good Saint Anne, to use Saint Anne's blessed oil, to drink Saint Anne's water - perhaps for stomach problems - and to pray to the great saint with confidence.

Qualities of Father Marchildon described by an anonymous writer who obviously knew him very well.

It could only be Father Raymond Bedard, Dominican, who succeeded Father Marchildon as Director of Saint Anne Shrine. The original text is in French.

From a human point of view Father Marchildon had three characteristics: tenacity at work, intellectual avidity, and originality in executing. These qualities will serve him well in his apostolate.

1. The fact that he performed for more than half a century the same duties, in the same convent, for the same people and by the same means is evidence of his constancy in the fulfillment of the duties of his state.

He worked in mean and cramped quarters at the rectory. His office was encumbered with books, documents, notes, filing cabinets and a heap of soap boxes brimming over with newspaper clippings and circulars. There everyday he did the same things: he answered his abundant mail, noted the names of his correspondents, their offerings if any. He received penitents and afflicted ones, prepared sermons for novenas to Saint Anne, and, at scheduled times, he preached, prayed, and heard confessions. The bell calling the friars to choir office made him leave his work and join the community for the divine office, perhaps a bit late.

This tenacity manifested itself also in his conversations and replies to those raising questions. He would lose track of time, that "flees inexorably," while he delved into an issue, exhausted a subject in an effort to show its innumerable aspects. Thus he was able to produce much by sustained work.

2. The second quality Father had, from a human point of view, was his intellectual avidity. He passed up no opportunity to increase his competence and became unquestionably a very cultivated man. "Cerebro-motor," psychologically, his intellectual curiosity was never satisfied. The most disparate questions, whether in science, mathematics, politics, or linguistics, challenged his mind and provoked in him the same reactions that studies in philosophy, theology and Sacred Scripture produce in others.

He searched in books, even in newspapers, questioned people and engaged in heated discussions, not for the satisfaction of winning an argument, but to learn, and he analyzed in detail the question or the problem he sought to understand. How often he searched in immense dictionaries, French or English, Portuguese or Italian, the exact meaning of a word, an expression, a locution, for the sole satisfaction of his curious mind. Served well by an excellent memory, he could find or indicate in a short time an exact reference, or recall an anecdote pertaining to famous men of the past or contemporaries.

One day, in Boston, in a very busy street, by a seaport with his friend Father Lamothe - another inquisitive intellectual - he was trying to determine the exact spot where a cargo of tea had been cast into the sea. Both men, standing on the sidewalk, shoved by passersby, attracting attention, yet inattentive to the hustle and bustle around them, were discussing this very serious point of history! True intellectuals, it is said, are not always realists.

3. Another facet of Father Marchildon's personality was his originality in carrying out his ministry. This is a semi-quality because originality has not only something novel and personal, but also a slight tinge of eccentricity and of the bizarre. Father Marchildon had intellectual flashes that translated into actions that roused the attention. For example, during a novena sermon, he interrupted his talk and invited a religious confrere who had some artistic talent, a violinist or flutist, to stand before the congregation and play a religious, and sometimes non-religious fantasy. On one occasion he introduced a Dominican missionary from Japan on visit here, by having him stand facing the congregation, while he eulogized him to no end! That missionary was no one less than the young Bishop Lemieux, head of the Diocese of Sendai in Japan.

Father Marchildon had a knack for using unusual situations to give them an apostolic form. He succeeded to capture the attention of the faithful and to arouse an intense religious emotion.

Another originality of Father Marchildon: Many a time, in order to rest from the demands of people, from his daily work and responsibilities, he would retire to a wooded area dressed as a lumberjack and chop down trees for a friend. Sometimes he invited a friend to go with him. Sometimes good Father Bibeau, former Provincial. Together they wielded the axe, piled up the branches, pulled out the stumps, then suddenly they stopped and pursued a discussion on some current issue. (This physical exercise Father Marchildon found invigorating. I can still see him, on returning to the monastery, standing in line with the friars as they said their prayers before entering the dining hall, squaring his shoulders as one feeling good.) It would require a long article to describe the countless aspects of Father's originality.