Brother Charles-Auguste Morin was born on April 29, 1926 in Deschambault, a village
located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence and a few kilometers west of Quebec City.
He was the fourth in a family of eleven children, including six boys and five girls. His father, who was an agronomist and manager of an apple orchard, was called Louis-Napoléon; his mother, Desneiges Poulin, died in 1926. The father remarried Agathe Lemay in 1931. The family moved often and finally settled in Cap-Rouge. This is why the young Charles-Auguste successively attended a local school in Loretteville and the Marist college in Charlesbourg.
He entered the Seraphic College of Ottawa in 1940. He began the novitiate with the Capuchins of Cacouna on August 1, 1947, and then received the name Brother Louis-Marie . He took temporary vows on August 15, 1948, and solemn vows three years later. He followed philosophy and theology courses at the Capuchin study house in Pointe-aux-Trembles, starting in 1948, and then in Ottawa, starting in 1952. He was ordained a priest on June 12, 1954.< /p>
The first obediences of Charles-Auguste were for the training of aspiring Capuchins and young religious: supervisor (master of discipline) at the Saint-François Seminary, in 1955-1956, director of the newly professed lay brothers at the same place, in 1956-1957, director
of the new Saint-Conrad school, from 1957 to 1961, spiritual director at the same location, from 1961 to 1963.
In 1961-1962, he took catechism courses at Laval University. Then it was a first experience of missionary life. He obtained an obedience for the diocese of Moundou on June 25, 1963, and he arrived there on November 16, 1963. Destined for the mission of Guidari, he did an internship at Doiti (school of catechists) to learn the Ngambaye language, from mid-February to the end of May 1964. It was there that he contracted bilharziasis, while bathing in the lake, which nevertheless seemed to be quite harmless. He was medically repatriated to Canada, where he arrived on March 27, 1965, and received a definitive return obedience on May 3, 1965.
He was first appointed to the Saint-Conrad school, then from 1967 to 1971, he did pastoral work in Lac-Bouchette and, subsequently, in schools of Lac-Saint-Jean, being attached first to Lac-Bouchette and then to Saint-Félicien. Health having recovered, the brother received a new obedience for the diocese of Moundou dated May 5, 1971 and was appointed parish priest of Kélo-ville. He studied linguistics in Paris in 1975-1976.
At the chapter of the Canadian custody of January 1978, he was elected advisor. In 1979, he returned to Canada on sick leave; he was operated on in the bladder in March 1980, after which he returned to pastor in Kélo until 1986, then priest in Guidara until 1989. In 1990, he found himself first in charge of the parish of Laï then he was part of the group of priests responsible for the pastoral care of this 1990 mission, and, in 1998, he was placed in the postulate of Goré where Chadian and Central African aspirants are welcomed.
The brother returned to Canada permanently in 2001 and was named to the fraternity of
Lac-Bouchette. He was then appointed to Ottawa in 2005 where he was treasurer for six years. In 2015 he was appointed to the provincial infirmary in Pointe-aux-Trembles then joined others
colleagues at the Résidence De LaSalle in Laval in 2019. He was a man of duty and work
well accomplished, not without a certain amount of attention to detail. He was, for years, a follower yoga: he attended sessions and above all he practiced it for a long time. He saw the possibility an integral development of the human being.
His attachment to the values of Franciscan evangelical life was remarkable. His fraternal relationships were demanding: he did not tolerate what seemed to him to be an injustice towards people and had, as if instinctively, an ardent and deep interest in people who were victims of life or those around them. It is undoubtedly because of this that he promoted savings among Chadians with the credit unions.
He died on December 4, 2023 in Laval. The remains will be exhibited at the Chapel of the
Repair on December 14 from 4 p.m. The funeral will take place on December 15 at
same place.
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