This skullcap belonged to Msgr. Louis-François Richer-Laflèche, the 2nd bishop of the diocese of Trois-Rivières.

Louis-François Richer-Laflèche was born in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade in 1818. He was the son of Louis Richer-Laflèche, a farmer, and Marie-Anne Boisvert. After studying at the Séminaire de Nicolet, he was ordained in Quebec City by Msgr. Pierre-Flavien Turgeon in 1844.

Father Laflèche began his ecclesiastical career as a missionary in Manitoba. During this stay in western Canada, he refused the episcopate and became vicar general of the bishop of Saint-Boniface, his 26-year-old mission companion, Father Alexandre Antonin Taché. Seven years later, due to his fragile health, Laflèche asked to return to Lower Canada, where he resumed teaching at his former college.

Pope Pius IX (1792-1878, the 255th pope from 1846 to his death), who called upon the Zouaves to defend his rights regarding the Papal States in Italy, appointed Father Laflèche as coadjutor bishop to Bishop Thomas Cooke of Trois-Rivières in November 1866 with right of succession. This appointment came as no surprise. Msgr. Laflèche was consecrated on February 25, 1867, a few months before the formal signing of the Canadian Confederation.

In 1870, Msgr. Laflèche succeeded Msgr. Thomas Cooke (1792-1870) as head of the diocese of Trois-Rivières and held this position until his death in 1898.

Musée Pierre-Boucher Collection
2007 164 C