Marcel-François Richard

[4][5] Some Acadians such as Philéas-Frédéric Bourgeois(fr) and Pierre-Amand Landry preferred June 24 which is Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day and Quebec's national holiday, but the Memramcook convention chose August 15 as favoured by Richard.

He also designed and proposed the Acadian national flag, a French tricolour with a papal star added to represent devotion to the Virgin Mary.

[4][6] Father Richard also campaigned for the appointment of more Acadian priests as bishops in the dioceses of the Maritime Provinces.

However his militancy displeased some Irish-Canadian prelates, who reproached him for putting the interests of the Acadian people before those of the universal Church, without distinctions based on languages or origins.

He died on 18 June 1915 at Rogersville, New Brunswick, where he is buried near the monument at Notre-Dame de l'Assomption (fr) which he himself had ordered built.

The French-language elementary and high school École Mgr-Marcel-François-Richard in Saint-Louis-de-Kent is named in his honour.