Archbishop Legal pictured at a stop during one of his many travels throughout the province to visit parishes and missions, ca. 1910. Archdiocese Archives Photograph Collection ARCAE-PA-3-0531.

Rev. Émile Joseph Legal, OMI, the second bishop of St. Albert, was born in Saint-Jean de Boiseau, France in 1849. A man of remarkable creative talent and missionary zeal, five years after his ordination he joined the Oblates and arrived in the St. Albert Diocese in 1881. In 1897, Rev. Legal, OMI, was named Coadjutor Bishop of St. Albert with right of succession, and would eventually serve as the second Bishop of St. Albert and first Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Edmonton.

Legal wrote The History of the Catholic Church in Central Alberta and authored several important manuscripts relating to the Blackfoot people and their language.

He designed and constructed numerous church and school buildings; he was an avid amateur photographer; he was known as a forthright communicator. As Bishop of St. Albert and later Archbishop of Edmonton, he traveled extensively to remote missions across the region and opened new parishes in nearly every year of his episcopacy.

In 1902 he welcomed Ukrainian Basilan priests and Ukrainian Sister Servants of Mary Immaculate to serve Ukrainian Catholics of the Eastern Rite who were arriving in large numbers in Alberta.

To develop more lay leaders, Legal urged the establishment of two key organizations, the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Women’s League. Edmonton Council 1184 of the Knights of Columbus, the first council west of Winnipeg, was organized in St. Joachim Parish in 1907. Five years later, in 1912, Legal recognized the need for an organization to assist women immigrants arriving in Edmonton. He asked Katherine Hughes to established a Catholic action group of women, which eight years later formed the national organization called the Catholic Women’s League, which today works on many projects of the church and community and speaking on social issues affecting all Canadians.

Archbishop Legal died on March 10, 1920 at the Edmonton General Hospital, at the age of 70. By 1920, the population of the Archdiocese had grown to more than 38,000 in 113 parishes and missions served by 120 priests. The growing number of schools, hospitals and other institutions reflected the rapid growth of the Catholic community across the Archdiocese. He will be remembered as a Bishop of vision and decisive action.