(13 Nov. 1843-19 Jan. 1922), archbishop. Parents: Gabriel Gauthier and his wife Mary McKinnon. Born on his father’s farm near Alexandria, GC. Brother of J.N. Gauthier. Education: Regiopolis College at Kingston, Grand Seminary in Montreal. He was ordained to the priesthood at Perth on 24 Aug. 1867. In Kingston, he was director of Regiopolis College. He served as parish priest at Gananoque from 1869 to 1875, at Westport, briefly, in 1875, at Williamstown from 1875 to 1886, and at Brockville from 1886. While at Williamstown, he was responsible for founding the parish of Glen Nevis and he supervised the building of St. Margaret’s Church at Glen Nevis which did not receive its first resident priest till 1886. Fr Gauthier also supervised the building of the first stone church of St. Joseph’s at Lancaster and the building of a chapel at Martintown. Fr Gauthier accompanied Bishop (afterwards Archbishop) Cleary to Rome, 1888. In 1891, Fr Gauthier became vicar general of the Kingston diocese. According to the Brockville Recorder, 2 Sept. 1898, in an article on Gauthier’s election as archbishop of Kingston, he had been, as vicar general, a “close companion” of the late Archbishop Cleary and “always accompanied him on his travels whether by land or sea.” Fr Gauthier was named archbishop of Kingston 1898 in succession to Archbishop Cleary, and was consecrated archbishop in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Kingston, on 18 Oct. 1898. He was appointed archbishop of Ottawa in 1910. At this time he was 67 years old. He was enthroned as archbishop in 1911.

     This was a period of acute conflict over Francophone schools and of tensions regarding the future of the Archdiocese of Ottawa. Accordingly, the appointment of Archbishop Gauthier was strongly opposed by French Canadian nationalists. A man of tact and judgment, he managed before the end of his life to calm many of the resentments of many of his critics. He died at Ottawa. Gauthier was by the account of contemporaries a man of charm and affability, an excellent administrator, and a man of conciliation and peace. Sir Wilfrid Laurier called him “a saintly man.” (Choquette, Language and Religion, 114) His appointment to the Archdiocese of Ottawa has sometimes been seen as an unhappy ending to a life of unusual tranquillity and success.

     At a time of acute rivalries between Catholics and Protestants, he had personal friends among the Protestant clergy (Flynn 89) and stood for conciliation and good will in a way that makes him seem not only a successor in practice to Bishop Macdonell of St. Raphael’s and Kingston but in some respects a precursor of the ecumenical movement of a later generation. In 1886, the Protestant ministers Alexander M. MacGillivray and Peter Watson headed a Protestant group making a presentation to Father Gauthier on his leaving Williamstown for Brockville. Gertrude Wood, relying presumably on local memories that would have been strong in her childhood, reported that Gauthier and the Rev. Alexander M. MacGillivray joined forces at Williamstown to campaign for local option, using the priest’s horse and buggy and the minister’s alternately. On leaving Brockville, Fr Gauthier was presented with an address by the Protestants as well as the Catholics. (Morgan) He was the uncle of Fr C.F. Gauthier, who was to an even greater degree an ecumenicist before his time.

     Though he made his professional career mainly in English until his years in Ottawa, he was also a French speaker. He spoke Gaelic, and his Glengarry News obituary said that “as a student of the Gaelic tongue there were few who were superior to him.” The Brockville Recorder, 2 Sept. 1898, reported that he is “one of the best linguists in the country and as a speaker in English, French or Gaelic has but few equals.” He was distinguished likewise for his skill in Latin. The Freeholder of 22 Jan. 1886 noted in a tribute to Fr Gauthier that “some of his sermons have obtained a wide circulation through the medium of the Catholic press.”

     Archbishop Gauthier was a relative of Rev. J.G. Forbes, who was also once Archbishop of Ottawa. Archbishop Gauthier was perhaps descended from the Wolfe Island branch of a group of Macdonalds from Glencoe, Scotland, who came to Canada about 1816, some settling on the Glengarry-Prescott border and others settling on Wolfe Island, facing Kingston.

     See also Rev. Alexander M. MacGillivray.

Life by Mark G. McGowan in Dictionary of Canadian Biography XV * Cornwall Standard 19 Jan. & 23 Feb. (will) 1922, Cornwall Freeholder 26 Jan. 1922, Glengarry News 27 Jan. 1922 * St. Finnan’s CRNI, I, 143 * Flynn * Choquette: index * Robert Choquette, Language and Religion: a History of English-French Conflict in Ontario (1975) * Robert Choquette, L’Église catholique dans l’Ontario français du dix-neuvième siècle (1984) * Morgan (1912) 436 * Villeneuve 188, 218 * sketch of his life, Glengarry Times 22 Oct. 1881 * Dr Norbert Ferré, “The Gauthiers of Glengarry,” Glengarry Life 1978 * H160-162 (portrait) * life of J.N. Gauthier this dictionary and information on family contained there * Ostrom 236 * ”In 1886, the Protestant ministers…”: CS 9 Sept. 1886; DTL Standard Freeholder 13 Sept. 1947, based on CF 10 Sept. 1886; also Archives of Ontario-RRM letter 1 Sept. 1886 * Wood letter 9 Sept. 1976 * Dorothy Dumbrille, “The Borrowed Feather,” and comment by G.R. Arnott, Glengarry Life 1976 * Legros, Hector, et Soeur Paul-Emile, Le Diocèse d’Ottawa 1847-1948 (1948?), with full page portrait * 1882-1982: St. Margaret of Scotland Parish Paroisse Ste-Marguerite d’Ecosse: Glen Nevis, Ontario (1982?) * Glencoe Scots: Lochinvar to Skye, 348 * Wolfe island connections: obituary of Alex’r McDonald, of Wolfe Island, CS 2 June 1905 * Bibliography of Glengarry: index for further refs. to Archbishop Gauthier * building progress of his “new Chapel at Lancaster Depot,” text of address of his Williamstown congregation on presenting him with a buggy and purse, progress of the convent at Williamstown, his “zeal and personal popularity,” True Witness, 17 & 24 Sept., 19 Nov. 1875 * stops fight at Lancaster, Glengarry Times 18 June 1881 * preaches temperance sermon at Lancaster, Glengarry Times 12 Nov. 1881 * reported to be among priests whose name has been submitted to be bishop of Alexandria, Glengarrian 18 April 1890 * death of his brother William, 36, at Brockville, Cornwall Freeholder 4 Aug. 1893 * Bishop Macdonell of Alexandria dies “in the arms” of Archbishop Gauthier, CS 2 June 1905