The Web is full of information on Brother Marie-Victorin. The Kirouac Family Association therefore did not want to reproduce in the pages it devotes to its key figures all this information that can be easily found on the Internet. So we wanted to focus a little more on the family side of the character. However, to get to know him well, you will also find links on our site which, in our opinion, will allow visitors to take the true measure of the man considered by all to be the first French-Canadian scientist.

Raymond Duchesne and Tabitha Marshall introduces Conrad Kirouac in an article in the The Canadian Encyclopedia. After a brief introduction recounting his origins, he recounts his career and mentions certain tributes that have been paid to him.

The Université de Montréal website presents it with an abundance of information and period photos under the title: Marie-Victorin, the itinerary of a botanist. In addition, under the title of Harvesting for Science, the University of Montreal also offers the collection of photos he took during his career. All of these photographs, slides, and glass plates have been digitized by the University's Records and Archives Management Division and can be viewed online.

The National Film Board of Canada, with a screenplay and direction by Nicole Gravel, introduces us to Victorin, le naturaliste, a 52-minute feature film produced in 1997, in which several brothers of the Christian Schools collaborated, including Brother Marcel Blondeau as Brother Marie-Victorin; a film which “initiates the rudiments of the natural sciences, botanical research and the great floristic explorations, in the company of this nonconformist university professor and religious” that was Conrad Kirouac.

Our Association also published, in its magazine Le Trésor des Kirouac, Marie-Victorin, a word from Brother Florent Gaudreaut, Provincial of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, spoken by him during the annual meeting of the Kirouac families on September 9, 2017 at Montreal Botanical Garden. His text makes an interesting synthesis of the avant-garde, nationalist, literary and scientific character that was Marie-Victorin.

Less known was Marie-Victorin's ability to write brilliantly. Indeed, he was, like his distant cousin, the Franco-American writer Jack Kerouac, an author of great talent. He has written plays, including Charles Le Moyne and under the pseudonym, M. SonPays, he has published numerous articles on his favorite themes: the French language, the place of Quebecers in science and the importance of science. in the development of a people. Apart from his Flore laurentienne, he is also the author of two small volumes in which you can discover an aspect of the writer that was Conrad Kirouac. We therefore wanted to share this knowledge with you by making these two works accessible from this page of our site:

Laurentian stories

Laurentian sketches

Finally, the Kirouac Family Association also wanted to present Conrad Kirouac to its members in issue 3 of the Special Edition of its magazine, Le Trésor des Kirouac. It has therefore brought together in a single digital document a few texts presenting the man in his family environment, some of his achievements and certain tributes of which he was the object. It is with pleasure that it makes all this information about him available on its website.

The association offers, also on the Web, its complete genealogy including the collaterals as much on the maternal side as on the paternal side, as well as simplified tables of its maternal ancestry and paternal ancestry.

In addition, you will find a file allowing you to locate the house where the young Conrad Kirouac lived in Quebec before his entry into religion in 1901.

Suggested books:

MY MIRROR, Diaries, 1903-1920

Brother Marie-Victorin, Gilles Beaudet, Lucie Jasmin, Fides editions 2004, 816 pages.

This book allows us to follow Conrad Kirouac, through his personal diary, in his journey as a man with fragile health, a religious who lives his commitment, the literary and the scientist who awakens and who manifests himself more and more . (See the Publications tab of this site)

Brother Marie-Victorin – Science, Culture and Nation. Texts chosen and presented by Yves Gingras, Les éditions Boréal, 1996, 186 pages.

The publishing house presents this book as follows: "These texts will allow the reader to discover a vigorous thought that contrasts with the much quoted conservative discourse and to which the range of ideas expressed in Quebec before -war. »

CONFIDENCE AND COMBAT – LETTERS (1924-1944) Fr. Marie-Victorin Gilles Beaudet, f.é.c., Lidec Inc., 1969, 251 pages.

Correspondence between brother Marie-Victorin and his sister, Adelcie Kirouac, mother Marie-des-Anges, rjm including a preface by Marcelle Gauvreau, director of Awakening in which the brother and sister exchange on various subjects relating to teaching, culture, spirituality and travel, correspondence presented and annotated by Brother Gilles Beaudet, f.é.c.