(9 April 1875-5 Feb. 1955), clergyman. Born at Moulinette, Ont. Parents: Mr and Mrs Duncan McRae. He was educated at separate school and high school in Cornwall, St. Michael’s College in Toronto, and the Grand Seminary in Montreal. On 17 July 1898 he was ordained to the priesthood at St. Margaret’s Church, Glen Nevis, by the bishop of Alexandria. The young man then followed post-graduate studies at the Canadian College in Rome, returning to Canada in 1901 with the degree of Doctor of Canon Law. He served as a priest at St. Finnan’s, Alexandria, till 1908, then from 1908 to 1922 he was parish priest of St. Andrew’s, at St. Andrew’s West, Ont. He was the first rector of St. Finnan’s Cathedral in Alexandria, serving from 1922 to 1924. While rector in Alexandria, he was chosen, by the Bishops of Ontario, to be the president or superior of St. Francis Xavier Seminary, the China Mission Seminary at Scarborough Bluffs, Ont. He began his duties as president in 1924. In 1939 he was elevated by Pope Pius XII to the rank of domestic prelate. At this time, China, a monthly of the St. Francis Xavier China Mission Seminary, stated:

     “The new Prelate is a man who has played a dominant role in the development of Catholic Foreign Mission work in Canada. For close upon fifteen years he has laboured indefatigably to promote the extension of mission work in this country as President of China Mission Seminary, and he has guided with wise diligence the advance of this Institution which is Canada’s only Seminary devoted exclusively to the training of English-speaking missionaries for Fields Afar.

     “His fatherly kindness to all has won him deep affection. His character and his executive ability have been the forces primarily responsible for the high reputation St. Francis Xavier Seminary enjoys today, and the amazing progress that the Society has made in the past decade and a half. His leadership has always been inspirational and in the solution of problems that have come his way he has shown a wise and prudent judgment, the fruit of long years of priestly experience.”

     In 1941, the general chapter of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society elected him superior general. He held this position till near the end of his life. Towards the end of his life, also, he became blind. He died in Toronto, and is buried in the family plot at St. Andrew’s cemetery, St. Andrew’s West. In 1949, the pope had made him a protonotary apostolic.

     His father was a Roman Catholic but his mother was a Protestant who did not enter the Roman Catholic Church until after her son had become a priest. Mgr John E. McRae had two brothers who were also priests, Fr Charles Duncan McRae (22 July 1876-1 April 1950), who was parish priest at Moose Creek 1904-1928 and at Glen Robertson 1928-1950, and Fr Albert A. McRae (d. 18 April 1959, aged 86). Succeeding his brother John as parish priest at St. Andrew’s, he served there 1922-1956. The two brothers, therefore, were parish priests at St. Andrew’s for a total period of close to half a century. (It may be noted also that another Fr McRae, D. C. McRae, was priest there 1906-1908, which indeed completes the half-century of priests of this surname). In 1949, Fr Albert McRae (by then with the title Mgr) celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. (Standard Freeholder 23 Sept. 1949) He was the last to die of the three brothers. It is said that at his funeral, the nearest relative was the Anglican bishop of Montreal. All three brothers are buried at St. Andrew’s.

     Also for other Glengarrians who served in the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, see the entries for Fr Alexander J. Macdonald and Fr Allan Bernard McRae in the present dictionary.

Glengarry News 10 & 17 Feb. 1955 * Sinnsearachd 88 * Macdonald, St. Finnan’s, 10, 21, with portrait * “China Mission Head Honored by Pope,” GN 12 May 1939: on his elevation to Domestic Prelate, with portrait and valuable biog. note from China * Villeneuve 55-56, 165, 215, 259-260 * Marin: index * Harkness 396 * The Story of St. Andrews West as Recorded on the Index Cards of Edwin McDonald, ed. Duncan MacDonald (1987) 73, 110-112 * to be China Mission Seminary rector (superior), GN 1 Aug, 1924 * obituaries of Fr Charles Duncan McRae, Standard Freeholder 3 April 1950, GN 7 April 1950 * obituary of Fr Albert A. McRae, GN 23 April 1959