Henri Faraud, (17 June 1823 – 26 September 1890), a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, was the first Vicar Apostolic of Athabasca-Mackenzie in western Canada.
He was born in Gigondas, France and studied at the minor seminary of Notre-Dame-de-Lumières in Goult. In 1844, he professed vows as an Oblate of Mary Immaculate. He continued his studies at Notre-Dame-de-l'Osier.
Faraud came to Canada in 1846 as a result of a search for missionaries for the northern missions by Bishop Joseph-Norbert Provencher. In 1847 he was ordained at Saint Boniface. Around 1848, Faraud replaced Louis-François Richer Laflèche at Île-à-la-Crosse, but moved farther northwest in 1849, and establishing a mission of Lake Athabasca in September, 1851. The following year, he visited Great Slave Lake, where no missions had ever been, and ministered to the Indians of Peace River (1858-59).[1]
Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché, who had succeeded Provencher in 1853, worked to have a Apostolic vicariate created and Faraud made bishop. On the 13th of May, 1862, Faraud was made titular bishop of Anemour and apostolic vicar of the newly created Vicariate Athabasca-Mackenzie; but such was his isolation from the civilized world, that he did not know of it before July of the following year.[1]
Bishop Faraud spent the next 25 years in the north, during which he evidenced considerable administrative abilities. He authored several works on his work in the Northwest. In 1835 he repaired to France, for the General Chapter of his Congregation. In 1889 he was one of the Fathers of the Provincial Council of St. Boniface, at the termination of which his growing infirmities prevented him from returning to his distant missions in the North.[1] Persuaded to retire, he spent his remaining few months at Saint Boniface, where he died. He was laid to rest in the crypt of Saint Boniface Cathedral next to the remains of Bishop Provencher.
