Overview

The Blessed (Bienheureux) Frederic Janssoone was a French-born Franciscan friar and Catholic priest who worked in France, Egypt, Palestine and Quebec, where he died. On 25 October 1988 he was beatified in Rome. He was a popular preacher who re-established the Order of Friars Minor in Canada. Janssoone arrived in Lévis, Quebec, on 24 August 1881. He immediately began to preach and give talks around the region. The impact of his Canadian tour was enormous. Janssoone arrived back in Canada at the end of June 1888 on a permanent basis, and by August had begun to build a residence, called St. Joseph Friary, at Trois-Rivières, which was the first community of Friars Minor in Canada in a generation. He revived the Third Order of St. Frances, established by the Recollect friars in 1681, but dwindled due to influence of Great Brittain. He established a Franciscan Friary in Montreal, in 1890. He died from stomach cancer, after 2 months of intense pain in Montreal. His tomb in the Chapel of St. Anthony in Trois-Rivieres is a place of pilgrimage.

Le père Frédéric publia un livre sur le frère Didace Pelletier en 1894, et la Revue franciscaine fit connaître ses miracles et sa vie, de 1891 à 1925.

Sa fête au calendrier liturgique est fixée au 5 août.

Sources

• Wikipedia
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography