Biological Letters

These letters will interest the historian as much as the psychologist or the psychoanalyst, because they reveal to us a deep and spiritual friendship between a man and a woman.

With this volume, Éditions du Boréal makes a collection of previously unpublished texts by Brother Marie-Victorin accessible to the general public. These texts, which the scientist himself called his "biological letters," are drawn from a correspondence he maintained for over ten years, from 1933 to 1944, with Marcelle Gauvreau, his assistant at the Montreal Botanical Institute and Gardens. Forming a coherent whole, they contain his reflections and investigations on sexuality. In them, we see Marie-Victorin exploring a new field of study at a time when prevailing morality made any public discussion on the subject unthinkable.

The publication of these letters was essential, as they represent a significant contribution to the history of sexuality in Quebec and to that of religious life. Indeed, sources on the private lives of religious figures are scarce, and everything related to sexuality remained taboo until the 1960s, in Quebec as elsewhere in the West. If these letters still risk causing shock today, it is because they present a vision of sexual life and celibacy far removed from that of today. They remind us of the "great darkness" that surrounded sexual matters at the time and allow us to appreciate how far we have come since then.

These letters will interest historians, psychologists, and psychoanalysts alike, for they reveal a profound and spiritual friendship between a man and a woman, founded on a relationship with God that precludes a physical relationship they both know to be impossible. They will also appeal to a wider audience, as they provide essential milestones in the trajectory of an intellectual who profoundly influenced Quebec society through his freedom of thought and expression, as well as his desire to challenge conventions.

---

Author: Yves Gingras
Publisher: Éditions du Boréal
Publication date: February 6, 2018
Pages: 280
ISBN: 9782764625194
Language: French