Ignace Bourget (French pronunciation: [iɲas buʁʒɛ]; October 30, 1799 – June 8, 1885) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest who held the title of Bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876.

Born in Lévis, Quebec, in 1799, Bourget entered the clergy at an early age, undertook several courses of religious study, and in 1837 was named co-adjutor bishop of the newly created bishopric of Montreal.

He frequently clashed with the Canadian secular authorities, most notably through his attacks on the anti-clericist Institut Canadien de Montréal, his defence of parochial schooling in New Brunswick, and his refusal to grant a Catholic burial to excommunicant Joseph Guibord.

In 1876, facing an inquiry by the Vatican into his increasing involvement in secular politics, Bourget resigned as Bishop of Montreal and retired to Sault-au-Récollet, where he continued to take an active role in church life until his death in 1885.

On January 28, 1821, he was conferred minor orders by Joseph-Octave Plessis, Archbishop of Quebec, and on May 20 of that year at the parish church of Nicolet he was elevated to the position of subdeacon.

This led to clashes with the Society of Saint-Sulpice, known as the Sulpicians, who exercised dominion over Montreal Island as seigneurs and pastors of the parish of Notre-Dame and who did not recognise Lartigue's episcopal authority over them.

[2] From May 3 to September 23, 1841, Bourget visited Europe, where he sought new priests to staff the schools, missions and parishes occasioned by Canada's burgeoning population.

On June 23, 1841, the Paris newspaper L’Univers stated that Bourget had "come to Europe to seek a reinforcement of workers for the gospel", and indeed his visit was interpreted as an open invitation to apostolic missionaries to bring their missions to Montreal.

[2] Bourget was instrumental in several important developments in the city of Kingston, Ontario, at that time newly named as capital of the Province of Canada.

He invited the Congregation of Notre-Dame to set up a primary school in Kingston, and in September 1845 arranged for the creation of a hospital staffed by Religious Hospitallers of St Joseph from the Hôtel-Dieu at Montreal which serviced the town and surrounding district.

[2] On May 1, 1845, Bourget directed Rosalie Cadron-Jetté, a widow of his St-Jacques congregation, in the establishment of the Hospice de Sainte-Pélagie, a Montreal-based institute providing care and crisis accommodation for unwed mothers, and on January 16, 1848, he arranged for Cadron-Jetté and her helpers to take nuns' vows and found the Institute of Misericordia Sisters, a religious community dedicated to "girls and women in a situation of maternity out of wedlock and their children".

On September 25, 1846, Bourget wrote to Signay and said, "For a long time I have been thinking that Your Grace should give up the administration of your archdiocese, contenting yourself with retaining the title of metropolitan.

He also secured an additional 20 religious staff for Montreal, including representatives of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the Clerics of Saint Viator, the Jesuits, and the Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

He used his influence at the provincial council to cause a disciplinary regulation to be drawn up, dated June 4, 1854, declaring that members of "literary institutes [at which] readings are given there which are anti-religious" were not to be admitted to the Roman Catholic sacraments.

[2] On April 30, 1858, Bourget wrote a second letter which demanded the removal of "evil books" from the collection of the Institut Canadien, backed by the threat of excommunication for all those who visited its library or attended its sessions and readings.

In a third letter dated May 31, 1858 Bourget directly attacked the remaining leaders of the Institut Canadien, as well as the liberal paper Le Pays, as anti-clericists and revolutionaries, and argued that the mere idea of freedom of religious and political opinion was contrary to church doctrine.

In 1848 Pope Pius IX was evacuated from Rome, and on September 20, 1870, the Papal States were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, effectively ending their sovereignty.

These upheavals were a source of great concern to many Catholics, and they were of particular importance to Bourget, who as an ultramontane believed firmly in the supreme authority of the Pope in all matters both temporal and spiritual.

He visited Rome to represent the ecclesiastical province at the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854,[1] and then spent time in Italy and France.

He argued that the revolution in Italy was attacking the Church "in order next to overthrow unimpeded the rest of the universe", and characterised Canada's liberal books and newspapers as accomplices in this alleged conspiracy.

On April 5, 1871, a bill was tabled in the parliament of the Province of New Brunswick which provided for the establishment of government-operated "common schools" requiring compulsory attendance of students.

The enactment resulted from government doubt as to the quality of the religious education being provided, and concerns about attendance rates among enrolled pupils, which by 1871 were as low as 55%.

He also urged Catholics to stop paying the school tax in protest, to which the government responded by imprisoning key priests and seizing property, including Sweeny's carriage.

On May 19, Bourget and Bishop Louis-François Laflèche co-authored and released a statement opposing the Common Schools Act, with the effect that several Conservative MPs of New Brunswick hailing from Quebec threatened to break ranks and support a motion of no-confidence against the government.

[8] However, discontent with the Common Schools Act continued to grow, culminating in 1875 when a protest at the town of Caraquet, New Brunswick devolved into a riot and two people were shot.

Due to Bourget's earlier excommunication of the Institut, reinforced by a letter written by Bourget that year, Brown was told that Guibord could not be buried in the sanctified area of the cemetery reserved for Roman Catholics, although the cemetery curate offered to bury Guibord without religious rites in the section used for non-Roman Catholics and unbaptised infants, and without religious rites.

[9] Prominent lawyers Rodolphe Laflamme and Joseph Doutre commenced legal proceedings on behalf of Guibord's widow and eventually took the case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England, which was at that time the court of supreme jurisdiction for Canada.

Following the ruling, Bourget went to the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery and deconsecrated the burial plot where the Privy Council had ordered that Guibord could be buried.

[2] From October 27 to 30, 1872, Bourget celebrated the golden anniversary of his ordination, and on May 1, 1873, he ordained Édouard-Charles Fabre as coadjutor bishop in a ceremony at the church of the Collège Sainte-Marie.

On November 9, 1882, Bourget made his final public appearance at Boucherville, celebrating the diamond anniversary of his ordination as the conclusion of his fundraising tour.