Georges-Antoine Belcourt, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Georges-Antoine Belcourt

Priest and missionary

Date of Birth: 22-Apr-1803

Place of Birth: Baie-du-Febvre, Quebec, Canada

Date of Death: 31-May-1874

Profession: priest, missionary

Nationality: Canada

Zodiac Sign: Taurus


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About Georges-Antoine Belcourt

  • Georges-Antoine Belcourt (April 22, 1803 – May 31, 1874), also George Antoine Bellecourt, was a French Canadian Roman Catholic diocesan priest and missionary.
  • Born in Baie-du-Febvre, Quebec, Belcourt was ordained in 1827.
  • He established missions in areas of Quebec and Manitoba.
  • On the frontier, he became involved in a political dispute between the local First Nations population and the Hudson's Bay Company, the monopoly fur trading company. At the urging of the Company's Governor, Belcourt was recalled to Montreal.
  • He was next assigned to Pembina, North Dakota.
  • He established two missions in the 1840s to convert the local Ojibwe (also called Chippewa) and Métis to Catholicism.
  • In 1859, Belcourt left Pembina for Quebec, but was quickly redeployed to North Rustico, Prince Edward Island.
  • He established the Farmers' Bank of Rustico (the first community-based bank in Canada). Belcourt retired from his post in 1869 to live out his life in New Brunswick, but was recalled in 1871, this time to the Magdalen Islands.
  • In May 1874, Belcourt was forced to retire due to ill health.
  • He died in Shediac, New Brunswick on May 31, 1874.
  • He was designated a National Historic Person by the Government of Canada in 1959.

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