Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/University of St. Joseph's College

Memramcook, New Brunswick, Canada

Founded in 1864 by Rev. Camille Lefebvre, C.S.C. The institution owes its inception partly to the desire of the late Bishop Sweeny, of St. John, N.B., to secure for the youth of his diocese the advantages of a secondary education, of Memramcook (1852-64); for the intellectual development of the French Acadians entrusted to his care. The college was incorporated, with degree-conferring powers, by an Act of the New Brunswick Legislature in 1868; and, thirty years later, by an amendment to that act, it received its present title. In addition to the faculties of arts and theology, commercial courses in English and French have always occupied a well defined place in the curriculum. It is mainly owing to St. Joseph's that within the past half-century the French inhabitants of Canada's maritime provinces have steadily advanced to a position of acknowledged social, industrial, and professional equality with their fellow-provincialists of other racial descent. Scarcely less notable has been St. Joseph's role in furthering the interests, enlarging the prospects, and elevating the ideals of New Brunswick's English-speaking Catholics. At present, practically all the priests of the Diocese of St. John, including its bishop, are sons of New Brunswick and graduates of St. Joseph's; other graduates hold prominent rank in commerce, law medicine, the Provincial Legislature, and the Federal Parliament.

SORIN, Circular Letters (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1880); POIRIER, Le Père Lefebvre et l'Acadie (Montreal, 1898); St. John Globe (anniversary number, 13 Dec., 1911).

ARTHUR BARRY O'NEILL