Denis Doucet on the North Shore

Denis Doucet was born on October 8, 1894, in Grand-Étang, in the parish of Saint-Joseph-du-Moine on Cape Breton Island. He entered the Church Point Juvenate in 1909 and left for the novitiate at Gyseghem, Belgium, in 1913. The German invasion in 1914 forced the young Eudists to flee. Welcomed in Normandy, first at Coupigny and then at Lébisey, he continued his theological formation there.

In July 1920, after seven years away, he returned to Canada. He was ordained on August 15 in his home parish, then accepted Bishop Patrice Chiasson’s invitation to join the Vicariate of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and learn the Innu language.

“On October 5, 1920, I therefore landed in Betsiamites, together with Father A. Jauffret.”— Denis Doucet, “On Mission in the North”

He first served in Betsiamites, then visited the Lower North Shore missions from Sept-Îles to Saint-Augustin, returning to Betsiamites each winter. From 1922 to 1929, he made this travelling mission every year. In 1941, after twenty-one years of ministry on the North Shore, he was transferred to Sept-Îles, where he served as pastor for twelve years.

Biographical references:Biographical notes, p. 5 et p. 11.