Alexander Macdonell
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Alexander Macdonell , until 1838 self- spelling McDonell , (born July 17, 1762 in Glengarry , Scottish Highlands , † January 14, 1840 in Dumfries ) was a Scottish Roman Catholic clergyman and the first Bishop of Kingston in Canada . He was politically active in both Scotland and Canada.
Life
Scotland
Macdonell came from the highland clan of the same name in the Garry Valley . During the Jacobite revolt in 1745 , they had supported the Catholic pretender to the throne Charles Edward Stuart . Under the pressure of the penal laws, which were then tightened, they took a course that was decidedly loyal to the king. That was also true for Alexander Macdonell's life.
Only foreign institutions were open to Catholics seeking academic education. Macdonell therefore went to home school to study philosophy and theology at the Scottish College in Paris , then to the Scottish College in Valladolid . There he was ordained a priest on February 16, 1787 . He then returned to Scotland as a pastor for the scattered Catholics. He worked in Badenoch , then in Lochaber among the Gaelic-speaking small farmers.
However, the old economic and social structure of the clans dissolved. Macdonell managed to accommodate a large part of his parishioners in the expanding cotton industry in Glasgow . He himself went there in 1792 as her pastor. The French trade blockade in the course of the First Coalition War destroyed the economic base as early as 1793.
In the same year Macdonell made contact with the Protestant clan chief Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell of Glengarry , and they both devised a plan for a fencible regiment, consisting of their unemployed compatriots, ready to be deployed outside England and Scotland. The government in London welcomed the project and the Glengarry Fencibles , led by Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell, were formed. Alexander Macdonell was assigned to them as a chaplain in 1794 - the first Catholic chaplain in the British Army since the Reformation.
After being stationed on Guernsey , the Glengarry Fencibles were sent to Ireland to suppress the rebellion of 1798 , where they fought on the side of the king against the Catholic rebels. Macdonell also stood up for the supply of the captured insurgents and for the restoration of profane Catholic churches.
After the Peace of Amiens in 1802, the Glengarry Fencibles were dissolved and the men were again without income. Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell also blamed the clergyman for the accumulated debts, which earned him a prison sentence of several months. After his release in January 1803, he operated the settlement of his people in British Upper Canada , where some clan members who had fought on the royal British side in the American Revolutionary War had already founded Glengarry County . He benefited from the relationships he had gained during his mission in Ireland and through his unrestricted loyalty to the king.
Canada
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Vicar General of the Bishop of Québec
In September 1804 he crossed to Canada. In the French-influenced Lower Canada , Bishop Pierre Denaut gave him jurisdiction rights for the area to which he was traveling, where there were hardly any Catholics and no priests. The contact was arranged by Denaut's coadjutor Joseph-Octave Plessis , who became his successor in 1806. Macdonell remained on friendly terms with him. Plessis operated the division of his diocese of Québec , which then included all of British North America , and the appointment of Macdonell as bishop. For the time being he appointed him his vicar general .
Macdonell settled at St. Raphaels Church in South Glengarry . His sphere of activity included all of Upper Canada. He paid particular attention to the employment situation of his Scottish compatriots. He had a water mill with a dam (1819) built near Saint Raphael's, around which the city of Alexandria named after him was built. He bought land to build churches in Kingston and York . In negotiations with the colonial government, he achieved the state pay of the Catholic clergy on an equal footing with the Canadian episcopal congregations, which were then still part of the Church of England . In return, he guaranteed the Catholic settlers' loyalty to the king . The arrangement, however, disrupted the good relationship with John Strachan , the leading clergyman of the Canadian Anglicans.
When a new war broke out between Great Britain (including Canada) and the United States, Macdonell offered the colonial government the creation of a regiment similar to the Glengarry Fencibles. The offer was accepted after some hesitation, and shortly before the outbreak of the British-American War in 1812 the Glengarry Regiment stood ; Macdonell was reassigned to him as Chaplain .
In elections he successfully supported the candidates loyal to the government, with his clan behind him. In the course of the war he played an active, also military role, which in turn benefited the legal position of the Catholic Church in the country.
In June 1816, Bishop Plessis consecrated Kingston's first Catholic church, later the cathedral . He agreed with Macdonell that he should travel to London in order to achieve the division of the diocese and state funding for Catholic priests and teachers in Upper Canada. In London he negotiated skilfully for a year, taking into account traditional anti-Catholic reservations and the interests of the Church of England. His proposal to first establish a Vicariate Apostolic in Upper Canada was a success. His financial demands, accompanied by the promise of unconditional anti-republican loyalty from his people, were largely met.
In 1820 the Holy See appointed Macdonell Vicar Apostolic for Upper Canada and Titular Bishop of Rhesaina . He received his episcopal ordination on December 31, 1820 in the Ursuline Convent in Québec.
Vicar Apostolic of Upper Canada
In the following decade Macdonell remained a reliable pillar of the Protestant-dominated provincial government loyal to the king under the new lieutenant governor Peregrine Maitland . He founded the Highland Society of Canada and won Maitland as its first president; he himself became Vice President. He became a member of the commission that determined the sometimes controversial demarcation between Lower and Upper Canada, and achieved further successes with regard to the state salaries of Catholic priests and teachers, including pointing out the large number of Irish Catholic immigrants, who were traditionally critical of the king.
Macdonell stayed in London from 1823 to 1825. He negotiated further on the question of pay and the question of the establishment of independent Catholic dioceses from the mother diocese of Québec. He advised against the planned unification of the provinces of Lower and Upper Canada. In Scotland he met John Galt , gave him valuable information about the settlement conditions in Canada and in return received a prominent piece of land for a Catholic church in Guelph .
As a result of Macdonell's loyalty and negotiating skills, the three dioceses of Kingston (1826), Charlottetown (1829) and Halifax / Nova Scotia (1842) and Québec was elevated to an archdiocese. Macdonell became the first diocesan bishop of Kingston.
Bishop of Kingston
Politically, he acted in competition with Protestant-loyal, Irish-Catholic and opposition forces such as William Lyon Mackenzie , still in the sense of unconditional loyalty. Public attention caused his transfer and finally suspension of the Irish-born priest William John O'Grady , whom he had appointed as his vicar general in 1830, because of his personal lifestyle and political tendencies. However, the government agencies to which O'Grady appealed supported the bishop. A relationship of trust developed with Lieutenant Governor John Colborne , who was appointed in 1828 . In 1830 Macdonell was appointed to the Legislative Council of Upper Canada, while Mackenzie intervened unsuccessfully. For Macdonell this meant the confirmation that in British North America the Anglican Church of England, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church were now equally responsible for the state.
At his request, Macdonell received the French-Canadian Rémi Gaulin as coadjutor in 1833 , who was able to mediate between the Scottish and the increasing numbers of Irish Catholics who immigrated.
In the elections to the provincial assembly of 1834, the Tories lost the majority they believed to be safe in favor of disparate groups of moderate and radical reformers. These united in the rejection of the political influence of John Strachan and Alexander Macdonell - which brought the two church leaders closer together again. Macdonell now supported Strachan's quest to be appointed bishop; but it was not until 1839 that he became the first Anglican bishop of Toronto.
The conflict between Macdonell and Mackenzie and his supporters came to a head. The bishop was accused of misappropriating foundation funds. In 1836 a new election campaign brought violent disputes, in the course of which Macdonell gained the heightened respect of the Protestant-conservative forces. He used this to promote the plan of a state co-financed diocesan seminary and the establishment of a church province for the whole of British North America. But he also criticized the oligarchy of a small power elite in and around Toronto.
During the unrest of 1838 after the proclamation of the Republic of Canada by Mackenzie, Macdonell, at the age of 76, offered again to set up a regiment of Glengarry Fencibles and to accompany them personally, but this did not materialize.
In the summer of 1839 he traveled to London, Ireland and Scotland to promote the seminary for which he had previously laid the foundation. In Ireland he fell ill with pneumonia and died in January 1840 in Dumfries, Scotland. His remains were initially kept in Edinburgh and transferred to Kingston Cathedral in 1861 .
literature
- JE Rea: McDonell, Alexander ( Dictionary of Canadian Biography )
- JA Macdonell: A Sketch of the Life of the Honorable and Right Reverend Alexander Macdonell , Alexandria (Ontario) 1890
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ JA MacDonell: A Sketch of the Life of the Hon. And Right Reverend Alexander MacDonell , 1890
- ^ JA MacDonell: A Sketch of the Life of the Honorable and Right Reverend Alexander MacDonell , Alexandria ON 1890, p. 35 , annotation
- ^ Raisin Region Conservation Authority: Garry River System , p. 2
- ↑ findagrave.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Macdonell, Alexander |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | McDonell, Alexander |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish Catholic clergyman, first Bishop of Kingston in Canada |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 17, 1762 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Glengarry, Highlands |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 14, 1840 |
| Place of death | Dumfries |