The Church

Abbot Léon Provancher was named server of the Tring mission on October 4, 1848. He was then 28 years old and had already served in Bécancour, Saint-François-de-Beauce, Sainte-Marie, Grosse-Isle with the typhus victims, with Irish sick people, and then in Saint-Gervais de Bellechasse. Upon his arrival in Saint-Victor, the parish counted approximately 800 people, all Catholics and of French-Canadian origin, who had built from their own hands and at their own expense a chapel and a presbytery. Later, pioneers from Bellechasse, Lotbinière and Sainte-Marie contributed to the Tring Township's expansion.

Société du Patrimoine de Saint-Victor-de-Beauce

Abbot Provancher, a scholar and man of science with a passion for nature, worked all his life to popularize his knowledge on botany, horticulture, ornithology (birds),meteorology, marine life and, above all, entomology (insects). He published several books on this topic. Provancher also founded the Le Naturaliste Canadien scientific journal, which contains a description and classification of insects collected by Abbot Provancher. A butterfly was named after him: Urocerus tricolor Provanchieri. His legacy also includes a collection of odonates (dragonfly, damselflies...) kept in Laval University and Lévis College. Brother Marie-Victorin, in the foreword of the Flore laurentienne, his landmark book, says of Léon Provancher that he was a man of ""incredible leadership and activity. (…) Provancher's Flore canadienne was a surprising work for the era during which it was published and the author's merit is all the more impressive because he worked alone, remotely from the great intellectual centers and technical libraries.""

Société du Patrimoine de Saint-Victor-de-Beauce

In 1852, Mr. Provancher was transferred from Saint-Victor de Tring to Isle-Verte. Before his death, he communicated his memories to the Naturaliste canadien magazine, and expressed his admiration for the Saint-Victor people who welcomed him: ""Everybody was poor, but they all worked  hard, were very courageous and were good Christians. (…) Everybody was poor, but everybody was happy because they knew they had to accept their faith, that the field that was growing contained capital with high interests, the cattle grew up and the forest was ready for the ax and the strong arm."" Léon Provancher passed away on March 23, 1892 in Cap-Rouge.

Source : La Société du Patrimoine de Saint-Victor-de-Beauce