BABINEAU, JOSEPH-AUGUSTE (1844-1915)

BABINEAU, JOSEPH-AUGUSTE, Catholic priest and parish administrator, Newcastle, 1869-71; b. St Louis de Kent, N.B., 29 Apr 1844, s/o Hilaire Babineau and Agathe Barriault; ordained 1868; d. St Leonard, N.B., 31 Mar 1915.

Joseph-Auguste Babineau was educated at St Dunstan's College (1860-65) and trained for the priesthood at the Grand Seminary in Montreal. After his ordination in 1868 he had brief assignments as curate at St Louis de Kent and Tracadie and was then named priest in charge of St Mary's parish, Newcastle. This parish had been established in 1862, and construction of a church was begun in 1865, but "as the task could be proceeded with only as the money came to hand, progress was slow." During Babineau's term the basement was finished, and he offered the first mass there in the spring of 1871. Soon afterwards, he was named parish priest at Tracadie.

Babineau acquired a reputation as a strong-minded and active and priest at Tracadie, where the administration of the leprosy lazaretto was one of his main responsibilities. In 1902 he was appointed priest at St Leonard, N.B., and he served there until his death thirteen years later, at age seventy.