Benoît Lacroix

Benoît Lacroix (; 8 September 1915 – 2 March 2016) was a Quebec theologian, philosopher, Dominican priest, professor in medieval studies and historian of the Medieval period, and author of almost 50 works and a great number of articles.

Biography Early life He was born Joachim Lacroix in Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse, Quebec, one of five children to Caïus Lacroix and Rose-Anna Blais. He studied at Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière obtaining a baccalaureate in the arts in 1936. The same year, he entered the Dominican school in Saint-Hyacinthe to study religion. He was ordained a priest with the Dominican Order on 5 July 1941, obtaining a degree in theology from the Dominican University College in Ottawa in 1941. According to Pietro Boglioni, a historian who wrote a comprehensive biography of Lacroix, he was named Benoît after becoming a Dominican priest, in memory of Pope Benedict XI (in French, Benoît XI), a Dominican pope from the Middle Ages. After entering the Dominican Order, Father Benoît Lacroix wanted to travel in a mission to Europe to specialize in liturgical studies. But World War II halted his ambitions and instead he studied for a Ph.D. in Mediaeval Sciences from the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto in 1951, under the guidance of philosopher, historian professor Étienne Gilson, who encouraged him to study Historiography. His thesis was titled "Les Débuts de l'historiographie chrétienne" (The Beginnings of Christian Historiography") followed by "L'Histoire dans l'antiquité" (History in Antiquity) in 1951 with a preface by historian philosopher and Early Christianity expert professor Henri-Irénée Marrou. He completed his post-doctoral studies at École pratique des hautes études, and at École Nationale des Chartes both in Paris in 1952-1953 After leaving the chair, the position was taken by sociologist Jean-Charles Falardeau.

In the mid-1980s, he left the academic life at the university, to work more freely as author, presenter, communicator and thinker, gaining wide fame in religious and intellectual circles in Quebec according to professor and historian Pietro Boglioni.

In 1979 he was a founding member of Institut québécois de recherche (IQRC, Quebec Research Institute). Lacroix became a centenarian, in September 2015, and died of pneumonia on 2 March 2016.

Awards and honours

In 1971, he became a member of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the French Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.

In 1981, he was awarded the prestigious Prix Léon-Gérin, an award established by the Government of Quebec as part of the Prix du Québec, which "goes to researchers in one of the social sciences". The prize committee sited his works as a theologian, a specialist in popular religions, writer, literary historian and Dominican father, quoting sociologist, theologian, priest and writer Jacques Grand'Maison that Lacoix was one of the best witnesses of Quebec's history from medieval times and as a historian, in the intellectual tradition that fascilated western thinking. His works also permitted a better understanding of Quebec history in new eyes, adding that since the 1950s and the very first of his publications with Pourquoi aimer le Moyen Âge (Why Love the Middle Ages), he showed his expertise in medieval studies and in popular religions.

In 1982, he became a member of Société des Dix, a group of Quebec historians and in 1985, became an Officer of Order of Canada (O.C.). In 1097, he received the Pierre Chauveau Medal awarded by the Royal Society of Canada "for a distinguished contribution to knowledge in the humanities other than Canadian literature and Canadian history" and in 1990, received an honorary Doctorat honoris causa from Université de Sherbrooke. He became a Knight of National Order of Quebec and 5 years later Grand Officer of the same Quebec order.

The public library in Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse, the hometown of Benoît Lacroix was renamed "Bibliothèque Benoît-Lacroix" in his honour.

Canadian composer Nicole Rodrigue (1943-2010) used Lacroix’s text in her composition Hommage a Fernando.