Blessed John Eudes House

Forming priests, serving communities

In 1895, the Eudist authorities, in agreement with Archbishop Cornelius O’Brien of Halifax, decided to open a seminary in Halifax to form both their own candidates and diocesan clergy. After a few years, however, they found that the arrangement between diocesan seminarians and future Eudists was not ideal, as several transferred to the diocesan clergy.

After his appointment as provincial vicar in 1911, Father Prosper Lebastard decided to open an Eudist formation house in Bathurst, on land he had already purchased. In the spring of 1912, the decision was made to build a large stone building to house the juvenate, novitiate, and seminary.

The first phase of the project was a wooden house to provide temporary accommodation for those overseeing construction of the seminary. Known as Blessed John Eudes House, it was completed in the summer of 1915 and welcomed its first five novices that fall. They were expected to move into the still unfinished seminary in September 1916.

The fire at Sacred Heart College in Caraquet in December 1915 changed the provincial vicar’s plans: the seminary served as a temporary college for Caraquet students when the school year began in September 1916. The building itself burned down in March 1917. Blessed John Eudes House was then enlarged and adapted as a novitiate and seminary, housing future Eudists until August 1923. They then moved to Sacred Heart Seminary, which had just opened in Charlesbourg. Blessed John Eudes House later accommodated the Eudist juvenate until the mid-1960s.

Seminary life in photographs

21 archival photographs of buildings, people, and community life.

Eudist Archives slideshows

Charlesbourg Archives Service

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