Paquin, Julien

Julien Paquin, S.J. was born on April 24, 1858 in Saint-André-d’Argenteuil, Quebec. After completing four years at College Bourget in Rigaud, Quebec, he received Minor Orders. On September 28, 1880, at age 22, he joined the Society of Jesus at Sault-au-Récollet, in Montreal. There, he received four years of spiritual and classical training. He was then sent to teach at St. Mary’s College in Montreal, where he stayed for a year, and then to College Saint-Boniface, in Manitoba, where he also studied theology. Bishop Taché of Saint-Boniface ordained him to the priesthood on October 28, 1886.

Appointed minister at the Jesuit community of Immaculée-Conception in Montreal in 1887, Father Paquin was then transferred to the Rocky Mountain Missions of the Northwestern United States. In 1892, he was transferred to Wikwemikong, on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, where he was Superior of the mission from 1895 to 1898.

In 1898, Father Paquin was named Rector of College Saint-Boniface. After two years in this office, he served in a number of capacities, as pastor at Byng Inlet, in 1900, and, again, as Superior at Wikwemikong, from 1902 to 1904. He was then named Minister to the Jesuit community there, from 1904 to 1907. Back to College Saint-Boniface in 1907 as Dean of Studies, he also organized clergy and students for an historical expedition to the northwest triangle of the Lake of the Woods that positively identified the site of the 18th century Fort St. Charles and the remains of Father Jean-Pierre Aulneau and Jean-Baptiste La Vérendrye. In 1909, Father Paquin went as a missionary to Port Arthur, Ontario, and later served as pastor at Schreiber, 1909-1910, and at Sudbury, 1910-1911.

When the decision was made in August 1911 to transfer the Indigenous residential schools from Wikwemikong to the town of Spanish, Father Paquin was sent to Spanish to supervise the construction and later the move to the new buildings.

During World War I, Father Paquin volunteered for service as a military chaplain, and minister to Canadian soldiers, from 1916 to 1919, in England and France. He also served in the Salonika campaign. Once the war ended, he returned to missionary duties at Schreiber, Port Arthur, Killarney, Spanish and Garden River, working in these missions until the mid 1930s. He spent his last years at Wikwemikong writing his book The Tragedy of Old Huronia, published in 1932, and composing a chronical of the Wikwemikong and Thunder Bay missions. He passed away in Wikwemikong, on May 11, 1938.