Father Albert Lacombe (1827-1916)

Dec. 1, 2024

By Columbia staff

Dec. 1, 2024

Photo courtesy of OMI Lacombe Canada — The Annunciation to the Shepherds (L'Annunciation aux bergers), 1875

Oblate Father Albert Lacombe took a priest’s responsibility to walk with his flock literally. The Canadian missionary spent nearly 70 years trekking across several provinces to evangelize, serve and advocate for Indigenous communities. “I will die happy among my neophytes, ministering to them as long as I have strength,” he once wrote to his bishop.

Lacombe was born in Saint-Sulpice, Lower Canada (modern-day Québec), to a family of farmers; his mother was a descendant of an Ojibwe chieftain. He felt a call to the priesthood early in life, entered seminary as a teenager, and was ordained a priest in 1849 at the age of 22. Stirred by the stories of missionaries he met, he ministered in a part of the Red River Valley that is now North Dakota and southern Manitoba, where he accompanied nomadic Métis hunters on the plains. He returned to Lower Canada for a short time but went back to Red River in 1852.

After joining the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate three years later, Father Lacombe spent the next decades establishing missions in present-day Alberta and Manitoba. Known for his linguistic skills, he learned the Cree language to serve Cree and Métis communities, eventually developing Cree and Blackfoot dictionaries and translating the New Testament into Cree.

Father Lacombe’s influence allowed him to act as peacemaker between warring tribes, establish several schools for Indigenous children, and protect Indigenous interests in negotiations with the Canadian government and Canadian Pacific Railway. So beloved was he by the communities he served that they called him “The man of the good heart.”

In his final years, Father Lacombe founded a home for orphans and the elderly near Calgary. He died there on Dec. 12, 1916, at age 89.

Father Albert Lacombe (1827-1916)

Related Articles

Catholic Man of the Month

Blessed Michał Sopoćko (1888-1975)

Blessed Michał Sopoćko (1888-1975)

Catholic Man of the Month

Father Louis Doumain (1920-1944)

Father Louis Doumain (1920-1944)

Catholic Man of the Month

Blessed Giacomo Alberione (1884-1971)

Blessed Giacomo Alberione (1884-1971)

Catholic Man of the Month

Father Alphonse L’Heureux (1894-1947)

Father Alphonse L’Heureux (1894-1947)

Catholic Man of the Month

Father Charles Kram Jr. (1929-2000)

Father Charles Kram Jr. (1929-2000)

Catholic Man of the Month

Blessed Stanisław Kostka Starowieyski (1895-1941)

Blessed Stanisław Kostka Starowieyski (1895-1941)

Catholic Man of the Month

Venerable Ismael Molinero Novillo (1917-1938)

Venerable Ismael Molinero Novillo (1917-1938)

Catholic Man of the Month

Blessed Mariano de la Mata Aparício (1905-1983)

Blessed Mariano de la Mata Aparício (1905-1983)