Yvan Mathieu, S.M.
Our New Auxiliary Bishop Yvan Mathieu, S.M.
Fr. Yvan Mathieu is a Marist priest born in Québec City in 1961. He attended the Marist Fathers’ High School in Québec City where he graduated in 1976. In 1979, he entered the novitiate of the Marist Fathers in Washington DC and made his first vows in 1980. He was ordained to the priesthood on August 15 1987.
He studied Theology at Saint Paul University in 1980-1984. He worked at the Séminaire des Pères Maristes in Québec City in 1984-1989. He studied at the Pontificio Istituto Biblico in Rome in 1989-1993 where he graduated with an SSL. After two years of ministry in Québec City (1993-1995), he came back to Saint Paul University to do his doctorare. He graduated in 2000. His dissertation was on The Portrait of Peter in Luke – Acts and was published (in French) in 2004.
Since 2000, Fr. Mathieu is a professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages in the Faculty of Theology at Saint Paul University. In July 2014, he became Dean of the Faculty of Theology. Fr. Mathieu also serves in parishes on weekends, preaches retreats, gives conferences and collaborates with three homiletical reviews: Prions en Église, Vie liturgique and Feuillet biblique. He was just elected provincial superior of the Canadian Marist Fathers shortly before His Holiness named him.
On March 17th, 2022, Pope Francis appointed Fr. Yvan Mathieu, s.m. as Auxiliary Bishop of Ottawa-Cornwall. He was ordained bishop on June 13, 2022 at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa, ON.
Bishop Yvan’s Coat of Arms
The arms are shown with the traditional heraldic attributes of a bishop: a green galero, or ecclesiastical hat, with six green tassels suspended from each side, and a gold processional cross.
The three stars symbolize the Holy Trinity. They may refer to two biblical scenes: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near – a star shall come out of Jacob” (Numbers 24:17) and “In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’” (Matthew 2:1-2) They also evoke the Virgin Mary and the Marian Hymn: Ave Maris Stella, “Hail, star of the sea”.
The motto Noli timere is translated as “Do not be afraid.” It comes from what Jesus said to Peter in Luke 5:10, a text that was proclaimed during his episcopal ordination: “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” The same expression is found in the words of the Angel of the Lord to Joseph in the Gospel of Matthew (1:20): “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is [a]conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” These words are addressed to Bishop Mathieu in the face of the task that falls to him as a bishop, but also to all those for whom he will fulfill the ministry of bishop.
