Someone said, “Holiness is building an inner house to house God.” This applies perfectly to this Recollet (Franciscan) monk who lived in New France from 1657 to 1699. A very skilled carpenter joiner, as well as a true saint, this Brother Didace! For more than three centuries, despite some eclipses, popular devotion has continued to honour this local saint and obtained numerous favours from him. For the Franciscans and for Mgr André-Marie Cimicella, head of the Committee of Founders of the Canadian Church, the time has come to formally introduce the cause of beatification of Brother Didace Pelletier.

It was Mgr de Saint-Vallier who himself presented the first Acts in 1701 and 1713. Following a novena made at the tomb of this saint in Trois-Rivières, the bishop of Quebec who had been cured of a stubborn fever: “We, John, Bishop of Quebec, attest... that on the last day of the novena... we were relieved and healed... This is the testimony that we owe to the truth and that we let us gladly return to mark our gratitude to Brother Didace..."

Georges Pelletier, originally from a suburb of Dieppe (Normandy) emigrated to Canada in 1654 and settled on land in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. The following summer, his wife, Catherine Vanier, came to join him. Their first child was born on July 28, 1657: he was named Claude, before becoming brother Didace. He will have two sisters, Marie-Madeleine and Catherine. It was Mgr de Laval who gave the sacrament of confirmation to Claude and Madeleine in 1966. “Claude became a strong and robust young man, raised by parents poor in truth in temporal goods, but rich in virtues” his biographer tells us. , Father Joseph Denys, Récollet. A contemporary engraves his portrait, very similar to the words of Father Denys who undoubtedly commissioned this painting. We see a man of strong build, good-looking and smiling, with curly and bushy hair, presenting the broad and strong hand of a manual worker.

In New France, which had just been born, there was a great need for builders: everything had to be done! “Although gifted with great intelligence and insight into all the arts, Claude learned the trade of a carpenter.” In 1676, a new stone church was built in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré: Claude, then 18 years old, undoubtedly worked there. Was he part of the “Brotherhood of Carpenters of Madame Sainte Anne”, founded in Quebec in 1657? His father Georges Pelletier became the first churchwarden of Sainte-Anne (1669) and from 1671, he assumed the duties of beadle for around twenty years.

The Builder of God

At the age of 21, Claude Pelletier joined the Recollect Minor Brothers in Quebec, whose Notre-Dame des Anges convent is part of the current buildings of the General Hospital of this city. In 1679, Claude took on the Franciscan robe and would henceforth bear the name ofBrother Didace, in honour ofa saint of the Order, Didace of Alcala.

The Récollet Joseph Denys was responsible for founding chapels and convent churches in Percé, Île Bonaventure, Terreneuve, Montréal, Québec, Trois-Rivières: for these bold undertakings at the time, he asked for the help of Brother Didace. He spent twenty years with him, becoming his confessor, friend, superior and later his biographer. He had quickly noticed Brother Didace for his spirit of devotion, his even humour, his great charity and his talents as a builder. Father Dionysius had also recognized the holiness of Didace by her fidelity to her vows (through great interior struggles), her heroic obedience in the smallest things, her extreme poverty and her fasts, her ardent love of the Virgin Mary.

But Father Denys finds that Brother Didace is going a little too hard and urges him to take care: “...when I told him that he could not live long by giving any respite to nature, Brother Didace begged me , being his superior, to let him do it... preferring to die ten years earlier and have the consolation of having observed our rule than to live ten years later and have to reproach himself for having spared himself.. . adding that religion had done without him before he was there and that it would still do without it after his death!”

The church of Trois-Rivières

It was while working on the construction of the Récollets church in Trois-Rivières that Brother Didace contracted pleurisy which would take his life. He died peacefully in the company of his colleagues and his old father, himself reciting the prayer of the dying. His remains are placed in the crypt of the convent: this place is currently the property of the Episcopalian Church.

As soon as he died, popular fervour canonized him! He is credited with healing, prodigies and favours of all kinds. The first canonical investigation took place eight months after his death and his image circulated everywhere.

Two centuries later, in 1894, it was the good brother Frédéric de Guyvelde who gave the best boost to the cause by publishing a biography of Brother Didace Pelletier.

He printed 200,000 images which were distributed throughout the province. Since then, people have continued to pray to him, especially in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré where he was born and in the Trois-Rivières region where he died. His statue can be seen in a niche on the facade of the Basilica of Sainte-Anne.

Many historical points remain obscure: but as René Bacon, o.f.m., says so well. : “The Cause of Brother Didace may well, after all, need intercessors and believers more than expertly documented historians.” Let us hope that serious archaeological excavations will take place in the near future so that we can find, identify and honour the precious remains of Saint Brother Didace Pelletier.

Lucie Bélinge