William Fraser (bishop of Arichat)

William Fraser (1778 or 1779 Glen Cannich, Inverness-shire, Scotland – October 4, 1851 Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada^[1]) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest and the first Bishop of Halifax in Nova Scotia from 1842 until the splitting of the diocese into two dioceses effective September 22, 1844, when William Walsh took formal possession of the Diocese of Halifax. Bishop Fraser, however, remains a celebrated figure in the Canadian Gaelic Bardic poetry composed in his Diocese and is still remembered as a legendary strongman in both his native district of Scotland and in Nova Scotia. In both countries, many tales have been collected of his exploits.

William Fraser was born in Glen Cannich, part of the wider Strathglass region of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland, as the eldest of the 12 children of Scottish Gaelic-speaking parents John Fraser and Jane Chisholm. Like many others throughout the region, his family still belonged to the illegal and underground Catholic Church in Scotland.^[2]

After attending an underground Catholic school in his native district, he continued his education at the clandestine minor seminary at Samalaman in Moidart. In January 1794 he began his studies for the priesthood at the Royal Scots College in Valladolid, Spain. After being ordained to the priesthood on 8 Jan. 1804, he returned to Scotland soon after.^[3]

According to the oral tradition of Strathglass, which was first written down and published in The Casket in 1908, Fr. Fraser's return from Spain in 1804 was not locally anticipated and he arrived in the middle of the local Highland Games. To the outrage of the local population, Fr Fraser, who was thought to be a "foreign youth", won all the honours in heavy events, including the stone put and the hammer throw. John Fraser, who did not recognize his own son, is said to have shouted, (Scottish Gaelic: "Mac na galla, nam biodh Uilleam mo mhac-sa an seo, cha biodh a dhòigh fhèin aige!", "Son of a bitch, if my son William were here, he would not have his way!")^[4]

Following his return to Scotland, Fraser's cousin, Bishop John Chisholm appointed him as an underground missionary in Lochaber. In this wide apostolate, Fraser's duties included overseeing the semi-underground Lismore Seminary^[5][6] and helping to organize what is now St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Fort William.^[7]

• In both Scottish and Canadian folklore, Bishop Fraser is a folk hero. He is said to have been a man of enormous physical strength and to have been able to break steel horseshoes with his bare hands. On both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, many legends have been collected of the Bishop's exploits.^[8]

• Despite his devotion to the Catholic Faith, poet Ailean a' Ridse MacDhòmhnaill, a major figure in Scottish Gaelic literature and that of Canadian Gaelic, sharply opposed Bishop Fraser's decision to forcibly introduce the Catholic temperance movement into the Diocese of Arichat. In Ailean a' Ridse's 1854 Canadian Gaelic poem Òran dhan Deoch,^[9] ("A Song to Drink"), which he modeled after the Gaelic love poetry of William Ross and set to the air Robai Dona Gòrach, the Canadian bard declared himself a believer in, "The creed of Bacchus". Ailean a' Ridse also lamented the loss of merriment caused by the Church's bans against music and alcohol, while also lamenting the damage that he had seen alcoholism cause in his own family and among many other families like them.^[10]
• Despite their differing views over alcohol, following Bishop Fraser's death, Ailean a' Ridse MacDhòmhnaill composed the poem Cumha do' n Easguig Friseal ("Lament for Bishop Fraser"), which MacDhòmhnaill set to the air A' bliadhna leum dar milleadh.^[11] According to Effie Rankin, Ailean a' Ridse adapted the traditional verse iconography of a Highland clan mourning for the death of their Chief to the Catholic Gaels of what is now the Diocese of Antigonish mourning for the death of their Bishop.^[12]

• Odo Blundell (1909), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland. Volume I: The Central Highlands, Sands & Co., 21 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, 15 King Street, London.
• Odo Blundell (1917), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland. Volume II: The Western Highlands and Islands, Sands & Co., 37 George Street, Edinburgh, 15 King Street, Covent Garden, London. pp. 186.
• A. A. Johnston, A History of the Catholic Church in Eastern Nova Scotia, Vol. II, St. Francis Xavier University Press, Antigonish, N.S., 1971.
• Effie Rankin (2004), As a' Braighe/Beyond the Braes: The Gaelic Songs of Allan the Ridge MacDonald, Cape Breton University Press

• Flemming, David B. (1985). "Fraser, William". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. VIII (1851–1860) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
• MacDonald, Alexander (1907). "Diocese of Antigonish" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Diocese of Antigonish