Announcements
Benedict Joseph Murdoch (1886–1973), was a priest and novelist. He is probably best known for his book The Red Vineyard (1923), which was a memoir of his time spent in the First World War as a chaplain. Murdoch’s work inspired other priests to model their ministries after their own experiences during the Great War.
Born in Chatham, New Brunswick, he spent his childhood in his hometown of Chatham (now part of the City of Miramichi) where he attended elementary as well as high school. On 29 June 1911, Benedict Murdoch was ordained as priest and served parishes mainly in New Brunswick. In 1915, he enlisted as chaplain to the 132nd North Shore Battalion, a unit in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War, sailing to England in October of 1916.
As part of his work as Chaplain, Murdoch offered advice, inspiration, and hope to young soldiers who seemed to have lost their way. He in France, Germany, and Belgium.
After the war, Murdoch returned to New Brunswick where in 1919 he served as a pastor at Jacquet River, in Restigouche County, and Douglastown (now known as Miramichi) where he remained from 1921 until 1930. It was during this time that he began to show signs of combat stress reaction or shell shock – what today we might refer to as PTSD – Post-traumatic stress disorder.
Murdoch, on the advice of his doctor, retired pastoral duties in 1932, and secluded himself in a cabin in the woods of Bartibog. Over the next thirty years, living in seclusion, Murdoch wrote the majority of his books.
Two months short of the 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination, Murdoch was made a Monsignor by Pope Paul VI, receiving the title of “Honorary Prelate to His Holiness.” On 31 January 1973, he died at Hotel-Dieu Hospital in Miramichi at the age of 86.
Dr. Ross Hebb offers us an annotated edition of the 1923 war memoir of a young Catholic priest in France.
The Red Vineyard was first published in 1923 and is one of only two Canadian first-hand accounts of chaplaincy in the Great War. It is republished here in full, with scholar and author Ross Hebb’s valuable running commentary as well as an insightful introduction and epilogue, a helpful timeline, and a guide to persons mentioned in the work.
Hebb includes never-before-revealed details, including a letter from Murdoch’s RC military chaplaincy superior stressing Murdoch’s mental state and his need for a significant rest.
More than a war diary, A Canadian Chaplain in the Great War offers an exceptional window into the world of the time.
