Joseph Norbert Provencher

1787-1853. Roman Catholic bishop in Canada. He was educated at the Nicolet Seminary in Montreal and ordained in 1811. In 1818 he was sent to Fort Douglas (Winnipeg) to minister to the people of the Red River, and two years later became coadjutor to the bishop of Quebec for the northwest. He was thus responsible for Roman Catholic policy in the west, and sought to weld together a new nation of Métis,* French, and Germans in order to preserve the French culture and Roman Catholic religion in the west. Provencher labored over thirty years among the Métis, Indians, and Eskimos of the northwest. He became bishop in 1847 of the new diocese of the Northwest, later named St. Boniface.