Joseph-Octave Plessis
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His Excellency Joseph-Octave Plessis |
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|---|---|
| Archbishop of Quebec | |
Plessis in 1806
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| Diocese | Quebec |
| Installed | January 17, 1806 |
| Term ended | December 4, 1825 |
| Predecessor | Pierre Denaut |
| Successor | Bernard-Claude Panet |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | March 11, 1786 |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 3, 1763 Montreal, Lower Canada |
| Died | December 4, 1825 (aged 62) Quebec City, Quebec |
Joseph-Octave Plessis (March 3, 1763 – December 4, 1825) was a Canadian Roman Catholic clergyman from Quebec. He was the first archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec after the diocese was elevated to the status of an archdiocese.
Plessis cultivated a new generation of priests during the difficult period leading up to the Lower Canada Rebellion, including Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Ferland, Narcisse-Charles Fortier, Jean-Baptiste Kelly, Thomas Maguire, and Pierre-Antoine Tabeau.
Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography stated that Plessis "studied classics in the College de Montreal, but refused to continue his education, and his father, who was a blacksmith, set him to work at the forge. After a short experience at manual labour, he consented to enter the Petit Seminaire of Quebec in 1780. On finishing his course he taught belles-lettres and rhetoric in the College of Montreal, and notwithstanding his youth became secretary to Bishop Briand. He was ordained priest on 29 Nov., 1786".
Shortly after his ordination he was made secretary to Bishop Jean-Francois Hubert, and he exercised so much influence over this prelate that he really filled the functions of auxiliary bishop. In 1792 he was appointed Curé of Notre-Dame at Quebec.
Bishop Pierre Denaut, Hubert's successor, named Plessis his grand vicar in 1797, and at the same time announced his intention of appointing him coadjutor bishop. The popularity of Plessis with French Canadians excited the hostility of the English party, and General Prescott, the governor of the province, opposed the appointment, but he finally yielded to the demands of public opinion.
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