Frère Marie-Victorin
Frère Marie-Victorin, born Conrad Kirouac in 1885 in Kingsey Falls, Québec, Canada, was a notable figure in the field of botany and education. He was educated by the Frères Chrétiens, a Catholic teaching order, and adopted his religious name while under their guidance. Following a diagnosis of tuberculosis in 1903, he developed a passion for botany, leading him to become a self-taught expert in the field. He began teaching for the Frères Chrétiens before joining the University of Montreal as a professor of botany after earning the first doctorate in the region without a formal degree. His seminal work, "Flore laurentienne," published in 1935, became a foundational botanical guide, documenting approximately two thousand plant species in the St. Lawrence Valley. Frère Marie-Victorin was instrumental in founding several scientific associations in Canada, enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration in the sciences. Tragically, he died in a car accident in 1944, but by that time, he had established himself as a leading French Canadian scientist, leaving a lasting legacy in botanical research and education.
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Subject Terms
Frère Marie-Victorin
Botanist
- Born: April 3, 1885
- Birthplace: Kingsley Falls, Quebec, Canada
- Died: July 15, 1944
- Place of death: Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada
Biography
Frère Marie-Victorin was born Conrad Kirouac in Kingsey Falls, Québec, Canada, in 1885, but he and his merchant family moved to Québec City when he was an infant. He was educated from childhood by the Frères Chretiennes (Christian brothers), a Catholic order based in Québec, and in 1901 he adopted the name Frère Marie-Victorin while under their tutelage.
After some time at the Mont-de-la-Salle de Maisonneuve seminary (where he did not actually get a degree), Frère Marie-Victorin started teaching for the Frères Chretiennes and soon developed a deep interest in botany. He had first become interested in the subject during the walks that his doctor recommended following his diagnosis of tuberculosis in 1903. Frère Marie-Victorin quickly became a self-taught botanist and applied his local expertise in several writings, the first of which appeared in 1908.
When the University of Montreal was founded in 1922, he was accepted as a professor of botany. Since he did not have a degree, he wrote a thesis on local ferns to earn what would become the very first doctorate given in the region. In 1935 he published his most important work Flore laurentienne which set the standard for botany guides and defined and illustrated some two thousand plant species in the St. Lawrence Valley. At the university, he helped found both the Association Canadienne pour l’Avancement des Sciences and the Société Canadienne d’Histoire Naturelle and played a key role in establishing interdisciplinary science in Canada. Frère Marie-Victorin died in a car accident in 1944 at the age of fifty-nine. By the time of his death, he had established a reputation as a preeminent French Canadian scientist.