Brother Marie-Victorin

Statue of Brother Marie-Victorin at the Montreal Botanical Garden.

Brother Marie-Victorin (born Joseph Louis Conrad Kirouac, April 4, 1885 in Kingsey Falls, Quebec - July 15, 1944) was a De La Salle Christian Brother and botanist in Quebec, Canada, best known as the father of the Jardin botanique de Montréal. Although Brother Marie-Victorin is on record as having suggested that Montreal build its own botanical gardens as early as 1919, the Jardin was only authorized by Montreal mayor Camillien Houde in 1929, and work only began on construction in 1931.

Subsequent administrations, both municipal and provincial, opposed the Jardin as a boondoggle; however, Brother Marie-Victorin continued to champion the Jardin's cause, promoting it at every opportunity, leading specimen-collection expeditions, and even (during the Second World War) protecting it from being converted into a military flight school.

Brother Marie-Victorin is also known for his writing: his Flore laurentienne is a botanical record of all southern Quebec indigenous species, and was the first such record to be compiled. As well, he is known for being a relative of Jack Kerouac.

Brother Marie-Victorin died in a car accident in July 1944; a building at the Université de Montréal, where he had taught botany, was subsequently named for him.

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[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brother Marie-Victorin

• Kirouac Family Association Inc. Bilingual Web Site
• Retrospective of Kirouac's life, at l'Université de Montréal (in French)

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