Lionel Groulx

Lionel-Adolphe Groulx (1878-1967)

Roman Catholic priest, historian, nationalist, was born on January 13, 1878 at Chenaux, Quebec amd died in Vaudreuil, Quebec on May 23, 1967. After his seminary training he taught at Valleyfield College, then the University of Montreal, where he edited a monthly journal titled "Action Française". He also developed a Quebec history curriculum that ignored the fact that France chose to keep Guadaloupe and surrender Quebec to Great Britain in the 1763 Treaty of Paris. Instead, he always referred to King Louis XV's decision as a conquest of Quebec by the British, and called the Canadian Confederation of 1867 a disaster. Lionel Groulx espoused the theory that Quebec's only hope for survival was to foster a Roman Catholic Quebec as a bulwark against English power.

Lionel Groulx inspired the Quebec nationalist movement for over 50 years. His major writing are "Histoire du Canada Français" (1951), and "Notre Maître le passé."