Joseph-Théophile Allard replaced Joseph Pelletier as the parish priest of Caraquet in 1876, following the Louis Mailloux affair, during which opposition to school reform and the control of Anglo-Protestant merchants had resulted in two deaths.

[4] Father Allard was cautious because the Bishop of Chatham,[note 1] James Rogers, was not supportive of Acadian education and had previously shut down Saint-Louis College in 1882.

[3] Construction work finally began in the spring of 1894, with the extracted soil being used to cover the Thomas-Cooke Cemetery, repurposed for a new use.

[8] Bishop Rogers, in addition to his suspicion of Acadian education,[7] was reputed to have a difficult temperament, while Father Allard was described as a stubborn man.

[10] Father Marcel-François Richard from Rogersville also tried to persuade the Eudists to settle in his community while directing the college in Chatham.

[10] The movements of the Eudists were under surveillance, and the parish priest of Bathurst informed the bishop that they had visited Caraquet.

[13] The official opening of the college took place on January 9, 1899; three of the seventeen students were nephews of Father Allard.

[17] During the last week of August, Father Allard took advantage of the Eudists' absence to leave the college, taking the kitchenware with him.

[18] This incident sparked controversy 20 years later, in 1919 when Eudist Father Émile Georges wrote a series of articles about the college in the newspaper L'Évangéline.

[18] In the first article, he denounced this event, and in the series, he accused Father Allard of having a "stone disease", referencing his numerous construction projects.

[24] That same autumn, nuns from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary arrived from Paramé, France, replacing two Shippagan workers who had been responsible for cooking, laundry, and general maintenance.

[27] He was also very strict with students who returned late after the holiday break, as they were not accustomed to the discipline of the poorly organized schools of the time.

[28] On March 19, 1900, the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, at the initiative of Joseph Poirier, granted the college the right to confer university degrees.

[32] The main issue was that additional classrooms had to be added each year in order to complete the full classical curriculum.

[39] This addition was part of a popular ideology at the time, aimed at steering Acadians away from fishing and toward agriculture and colonization.

[41] A typhoid fever epidemic struck Caraquet in the spring of 1910, though no victims were reported at the college; the administration responded by constructing new wells.

According to his final wishes, he was buried beneath Saint-Pierre-aux-Liens Church, and his heart was displayed in the college chapel.

[3] However, the Eudists preferred to rebuild the college in Bathurst, primarily due to the poor train service in Caraquet.

[49] On May 13, 1916, the priest of Grand-Anse, Stanislas-Joseph Doucet, also a friend of Father Lebastard, sent the bishop a petition signed by thirty-seven members of the clergy in favor of establishing the college in Bathurst.

A bust of Saint John Eudes, placed at the front, serves as a reminder of the college's history.

[54] The fame of the brass band and choir spread beyond the city's borders, and they were invited to ceremonies and boat blessing events.

[54] However, the most popular group was the theater troupe, founded in 1903 and directed by Fathers Joseph Courtois and Eugène Collard.

They performed plays such as The Merchant of Venice, Prince for a Day, Richard III, Tribulations of the Marquis de la Grenouillère, Vercingetorix, and Young Poachers, as well as original productions like My Cod Liver Oil.