From the Archives


On this page, we share from time to time the things that our archivist found and wants to share with you! It tells you about our history in Canada and how our mission began and developed over the years. "From the Archives" currently draws on content from the Franciscan Archives of Western Canada, which contains records from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. To learn more, visit us at archives.franciscanfriars.ca.
Fr. Engelbert Paradis came to Alberta in 1931 to teach at St. Anthony’s College in Edmonton and to help with the missions surrounding Edmonton. Here he is pictured in Wanda, Alberta, in August 1932, visiting his friend Paul Krotch on his farm. (…)
Fr. Alphonse Claude-Laboissiere served as a chaplain during the Second World War from 1941-1945. Here he is pictured standing to the far right of the photo along with other military personnel. The photograph was taken on Feb 24, 1943, likely when Fr. Alphonse was (…)
November 17 is the feast day of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, an early member of the Secular Franciscan Order of which she is revered as one of its patron saints. In honor of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, we are pleased to share a book (…)
Recently, the Archives was able to help a gentleman looking for the yearbook from his graduating year at St. Anthony’s College in Edmonton. We scanned some photographs and pages from the yearbook for him. Here are a few of the images from the 1959-1960 (…)
In a previous blog post, we shared the story of the first celebration of St. Anthony’s feast at St. Francis friary in Vancouver on June 13, 1928. On the front page of the friary guest book, Archbishop Timothy Casey wrote Peace to this House (…)
The following is an excerpt taken from Men in Brown written by Canadian friar, Fr. Walter Bedard. It follows a Franciscan priest, Fr. Anthony, as he goes about his day and tells short stories from his reflections and memories. The booklet was published by (…)
As this school year comes to a close, we congratulate all the graduating students! And we would like to share some school memories from St. Anthony’s College in Edmonton. In 1925 with the blessing of Archbishop O’Leary, the Franciscans approved the foundation of a (…)
The Franciscan archives is full of fascinating and fun records. One such record is a scrapbook that contains photographs of church buildings across Saskatchewan taken in the 1910s. It is likely that the photographs were not taken by a friar but was collected into (…)