In 2005, Les Méchins celebrated its birthday, 125 years of being as a parish: It was a very important year in the life of a Parish. It is of prime importance to maintain the souvenirs of most past events so that they do not slip into oblivion from the pages of our collective memory.

That time gone by is ours and it is our duty to convey that legacy to generations to come, the description of our past events, allow us to renew with our past, the life of our community and to repay testimony to the people who shaped our past life for a better future.

The celebration of Les Méchins 125th year anniversary clearly conveys the will of the people to go on with the work in the respect of our traditions and seeking to improve the quality of life of Les Méchins.

The community of Les Méchins, founded in 1880, will soon become a parish, the 1st of March 1911 year that Les Méchins was canonized, and the nomination of our first in residence priest, Father, Louis Paquet.

In 1865 the population of Les Méchins reached 119 souls that mean 55 adults and 64 children. The first mass was held in 1865 in the residence of Rodolphe Guimont born in 1844 and died at the age of 85 in Les Méchins. In 2005, the population of Les Méchins reached 1211 inhabitants.

The village of yesteryear

Entrée du village...hier

Rue de la Mer...hier

Chantier maritime...hier

To today!

Entrée du village...aujourd'hui

Rue de la Mer...aujourd'hui

May13, 1870 orders from the diocese authorities were given to build a chapel. The construction started in 1876 and was finished in 1881, too cold to live in, it was only in 1883 that the new missionary Louis-Côme Lavoie could move in, in the meantime he lived in the sacristy. The old sacristy became the (centenary house) in 1880 and today has become our municipal library.

It was built with the wood from the old chapel. Thanks to the courage and the determination of our ancestors, who were living in great poverty, we are harvesting the fruit of all the sacrifices that they had to endure. We acknowledge their gratitude and devotion. The church and presbytery are the living proof of their self-sacrifice.

Like most names of Quebec places, the origin and designation of this municipality of the Gaspe Peninsula has an explanation of legendary.

According to the Amerindians, the evil spirit Outikou, who haunted the mountain of Les Méchins, was playing by chasing them with a stick as big as a tree. That evil spirit, of a height of 2.5 meters and had just one eye like a Cyclops, he was running non-stop on the beach and only the exorcism given by a Jesuit in 1668 might have delivered his sufferers. That evil spitit was known by the Micmac Indians by the the of Matsi, (méchant meaning, bad, evil) who took a new shape as (Méchins).

According to some people, it would be better to use that version which says that the word (méchant) was changed into (Méchins) because of some steep rocks in the water and were rendering sailing very hazardous. However, the surname (Méchinois, Les Méchants) besides sounding natural and its phonetics closeness with the word (Méchins) give credit to the Micmac Indians legend.

After all, since we can’t be certain of a link between the toponymy of either legends, it is very interesting to note that there is a quarter in the township of Vensat, in the department of Puy-de-Dôme, about fourty (40) kilometers north of Clermont-Ferrand, in France also bears the same name of ( Les Méchins ).

Situated east of Matane, at 109 kilometers from Sainte-Flavie and at 30 kilometers from Sainte-Félicité, the actual site of Les Méchins is the consequence of the merger in1982, of Saint-Paulin-Dalibaire (1954) and of Saint-Thomas-de-Cherbourg (1954) and Les Méchins (1952) which was erected in 1877 as united township of Dalibaire et Romieu.While Romieu is identified with an old officer under the French Regime, perhaps surgeon Pierre Romieu, (1636? – 1675? ), and Dalibaire or Dalibert could be a hint to one the first directors of the Compagnie des Indes occidentales in 1664, that surname that was given to a post office in 1867 and 1938. Founded in 1859 on the arrival of three (3) families, the village has known a progress starting in 1880, mainly because of the agriculture, the herring smokehouses and the naval activities; some boats were even built at the end of the XIX century. The Saint-Edward-des-Méchins parish, was canonized in 1911, and was ministered as a mission since 1876.

Source: All of the Québec names and sites are from the Commission de Toponomie publish in 1994 and 1996 as an illustrated dictionary and also a CD Rom was made from that dictionnary by the Micro-Intel society in 1997.