Garnier-Marie Desbiens, OFM

1907 – 1990

Fr. Garnier-Marie Desbiens, OFM, was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, on July 20, 1907. In 1932, he entered the novitiate of St. Joseph Province in Montreal and professed temporary vows the following year. Fr. Garnier-Marie professed solemn vows in 1936 and was ordained a priest in 1939.

Immediately after ordination, Fr. Garnier went to Japan where he worked in Tochigi Prefecture. During World War II, he was incarcerated in a concentration camp, and after the war he returned to Canada for recuperation. From 1948 until 1955, Fr. Garnier served as a missionary in Japan and then went to Peru to work with a colony of Japanese Catholics for two years.

In 1960, he began to minister with the friars of Holy Name Province and eventually joined the Province in 1964. Until his retirement in 1973, Fr. Garnier worked in service churches in New York, Providence and Boston. He loved life, people, music, Japanese sushi and the friars with whom he lived and worked.

He died Aug. 25, 1990, at Holy Name Friary in Ringwood, N.J. Fr. Garnier was 83 years old, a professed friar for 56 years and a priest for 51 years.