The Most Reverend Boniface Grosvold, DD
Emeritus Archbishop of London, Ontario
Primate of the ORCC LR
4 June 1942 – July 21, 2016
Obituary
With great sadness the death of His Excellency Mgr Boniface Grosvold was announced. He passed away in his sleep at 1:00 AM (6am BST) on July 21, 2016 in the ICU of University Hospital, London, Ontario, Canada. His Excellency was attended by Monsignor George Hamilton-Roberts, who administered Holy Unction and remained at the side of the Archbishop until the end.
Most Rev. Dr. Boniface Grosvold was born on 4 June 1942 in Chester, Nova Scotia. As a young man he moved to Ontario where he was employed as a church musician and where he discovered Old Roman Catholicism. On 28 October 1969 (Feast of SS Simeon & Jude) he was tonsured and admitted to the minor order of cleric by Archbishop Nelson Dudley Hillyer of the Ontario Old Roman Catholic Church. He at that time took the religious name of “Boniface” and has been known by that name since. During successive Sundays in January of 1970 Bro. Boniface was admitted by +Hillyer to the minor orders of door keeper, reader, exorcist, and acolyte. On Easter Sunday (29 March) 1970, +Hillyer admitted Bro. Boniface to the sub-diaconate.
Feeling that his future was in another jurisdiction, Brother Boniface resigned in the summer of 1970 from the Ontario Old Roman Catholic Church and joined Holy Saviour Old Roman Catholic Parish of Niagara Falls, New York, and its bishop-elect Fr. William Mark Plested.
On 30 and 31 August 1970 respectively, Boniface was ordained a deacon and a priest by the retired Old Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto, the Most Rev’d Earl Anglin Lawrence James (1901 to 1978). On 28 September 1970 Fr. Plested was consecrated bishop for the Old Roman Catholic community in Niagara Falls, NY by +James, and both he and the now Father Boniface based their work there.
On 19 January 1972 the work was legally organized by the incorporation in the Province of Ontario of the Old Roman Catholic Church, Diocese of Ontario, which took in also the American Parish of Holy Saviour, which then served as the Pro-Cathedral.
On 20 July 1974, Fr. Boniface was consecrated the auxiliary bishop for the Old Roman Catholic Church, Diocese of Ontario in Holy Saviour Old Roman Catholic Pro-Cathedral by the Old Roman Catholic Archbishop of New England, the Most Rev’d Edward Carleton Payne, assisted by Archbishop William Mark Plested of the ORCC Diocese of Ontario.
On 30 November 1974 Bishop Grosvold was enthroned as the second Bishop of the ORC Diocese of Niagara Falls, New York, and Ontario, in succession to Archbishop Plested. On September 11th. – 12th., 1976, he was elected Metropolitan-Archbishop and Primate.
Since October of 1997, the See of the Diocese, also known as the “Old Roman Catholic Church In Canada”, has been in London, ON Canada.
Apostolic Succession
| 1 | 1908 April 28th + Arnold Harris Mathew, Archbishop, London |
| 2 | 1912 June 29th + Rudolphe de Landes Berges, Bishop, Scotland |
| 3 | 1916 October 4th + Carmel Henry Carfora, Archbishop, Chicago |
| 4 | 1942 July 30th + Hubert Augustus Rogers, Archbishop, New York |
| 5 | 1969 September 21st + Edward Carlton Payne, Archbishop, New England |
| Co-consecrators: +William Norman (Mark) Plested of Ontario, and +Ernest Whitfield Jackson | |
| 6 | 1974 July 20th + Boniface [Darrell Wayne] Grosvold, Bishop, Niagara Falls |
| Principal Consecrator of… | |
| 1976 September 12th +Thomas William Brennand, legally changed it to Jonathan Vartan Zotique (Mar Zitikos) (sub-conditione) (died 3 June 1998) | |
| 1976 September 12th +Donald Henry Ross Taylor(died 1985) | |
| 1976 September 26th +William Vincent (Paul) Hains-Howard (sub-conditione) (died February 1993) | |
| 1977 August 3rd +Norman Frank Budgey (died 26 April 2006) | |
| 1991 September 29th +Edward W. Franks (died 13 April 1991) | |
| 1977 December 10th +Ambrose Howard-Rose (died 1981) | |
| 1978 August 6th +Kenneth Wayne (Andrew) Berry (died 16 August 2013) | |
| 1996 December 27th Shawn Patrick (Andrei) Brennan (died 1 September 2013) | |
| 2001 May 27th +Dennis Ross Robinson (still living) | |
| 2002 October 19th +Denis Waterbury (still living) | |
| 2008 July 30th +David Keith (Francis) Milne (died 23 January 2008) | |
| 2006 May 6th +Brian C. (Xavier) Seaver (still living) | |
| 2007 November 11th +Luc (Gabriel) Casaubon (sub-conditione) (still living) | |
| 2009 October 27th +Robert Lavelle (Pius) Corley (still living) | |
| 2010 July 31st +John Gerald Marochi (still living) | |
| 2010 August 26th +Frederick Patrick Dunleavy (sub-conditione) (still living) | |
| 2011 April 9th +Jean (de la Resurrection) Amogou (still living) | |
| 2011 April 9th +Denis (Jean Marie) Ngodobo (still living) | |
| 2012 May 5th +Jerome L H Lloyd, OSVJ (still living) | |
| 2012 May 5th +Antonio Augusto Fernandes Freitas (still living) | |
| 2012 October 15th +William J. (Gabriel) Myers (still living) | |
| 2013 April 21st +David B. Fucci (still living) | |
| 2015 +George Hamilton-Roberts (still living) | |
| Co-consecrator of… | |
| +Robert Charles MacKenzie of Toronto, Ontario, on 4 October 1993 | |
| +Omar Rojas Gonzalez of Columbia, South America, on 2 April 2006 | |
