Palin, Father Clement François

1897, August 4

Date of Birth:  1838, May 8

Paris
November 8, 1897

Fathers and Very Dear in Our Lord: 

We lost at Montreal on last August 4th the former Superior of the Canadian College in Rome, Father Palin. His death, after the long illness which preceded it, could not have been a surprise to anyone, but the illness and the death have been the occasion of deep edification for those who witnessed our dear confrere’s patience and the great piety which sanctified his sufferings.

Father Clement François Palin was born at St. Cyprien in the Diocese of Montreal on May 8, 1838. He belonged to one of those pious and simple families of the Canadian countryside whose whole aim is to serve God in raising their children in the way of Christianity. He always had a very vivid and tender memory of his pious mother under whose influence he came all the more since, as a delicate and sickly child, he was never very far away from the family hearth.

He entered the College of Montreal in 1852 to begin learning Latin. He soon reached the first rank in his class and he kept that rank for all the succeeding years in spite of absences of several months for reasons of health, months during which his studiousness never let him be idle. At the college his temperament and character kept him out of strenuous games and those little projects of students which begin the initial experiences of the give and take of life. He was a model student: intelligent, pious, reliable, enjoying the company of those who shared his sweet and calm outlook. His lack of sophistication, at the age of fifteen, was such that his holy director, Father Nercau, availed himself of the reading and explanation of the Song of Songs to enlighten his innocent mind.

To that innocence of life, that delicacy of conscience – always evident in him – were  added at the Grand Seminary (which he entered in 1860) the further disciplines of ecclesiastical living: all the exercises of piety – prayer, Scripture reading, breviary, spiritual reading – became from then on basic ingredients of his daily regimen; and they never again lost their importance in his estimation; all the rest of his life he was seen to carry each out at its designated time or at the first opportunity there-after.

On his leaving the Grand Seminary in 1863, Father Palin came to the Solitude where his health allowed him to spend only a few months; thirteen years later he obtained permission to return, but for the same reason he could not again last out the year.

Ordained priest at Montreal on May 8, 1864, he was first assigned for three years to Notre Dame parish. The venerable Superior, Father Granet, was then nearing the end of his career, and during the long months of his last illness it was Father Palin who acted as his secretary. He always considered it one of the signal graces of his life to be so intimately involved with Father Granet. The memory of that holy priest strengthened him in difficult moments.

As 1867 came to its close, Father Palin left – never to return – the parochial ministry. He became first, at the college, teacher of Prosidy for a year; then from 1868 to 1874, teacher of Literature; then he went to the Grand Seminary, where for two years he conducted the course of Fundamental Moral Theology; and in 1871 he returned to the Solitude.

It was the period when there was being built at Montreal the Seminary of Philosophy, the construction of which had been decided on in the visitation of the preceding year. A course of Philosophy had always been taught at the college and – up to 1880 – Father Palin, back from France, was placed in charge for the last three years. He was then appointed to take over at the opening of the Philosophy Department at the major seminary of Baltimore; he remained there for four years as Superior of that department; he then returned for four years to the Grand Seminary of Montreal as Professor of Canon Law: that hidden life, that little-known but fruitful ministry of seminary director corresponded well to the nature and grace of his inclinations.

In October 1888, the Canadian College in Rome was on the point of opening. It was designed to crown the work of the Montreal seminary by offering to the young priests of Canada the means of pursuing at the very center of the Church higher ecclesiastical studies. Father Palin was given the important task of being in charge at the opening of that beautiful building and of remaining there as Superior up to 1896. The impairment of his health at that time caused his return to Montreal where he did little more than hang on till the last days of his life.

The open-mindedness of Father Palin and his application to learning permitted him to enrich his spirit in various fields; thanks to that, he could efficiently fill so many different positions. The qualities of his heart, full of loving-kindness, did not contribute less to his success. But his deep religious spirit, with the zeal it inspired in him for the sanctification of priests, stamped on his life its dominant trait. It was as a confessor, by his piety, his prudence, and his pastoral caring, that he especially made himself appreciated and venerated by a great number of priests, of whom several have not ceased since their seminary days to keep up close relationships with him.

The spirit of St. Frances de Sales was his ideal; and the book which bore that name was his favorite reading at the time of his retreats. But far beyond all other books, he venerated and loved to a rare degree those of Holy Scripture, especially the New Testament. He had much of it by heart, and he made happy use of it in his Spiritual Readings and in his pious little talks. He often recommended the textual study of the holy books to those to whom he was director.