(9 Feb 1881 or 1882-10 Oct. 1970), clergyman. (Rev. Alexander J. MacDonald, S. J.) Born at North Lancaster, GC. Parents: Peter MacDonald and his wife Catherine MacDonald. He studied at the Collège de St-Boniface, Manitoba, from 1902, and in Jan. 1906 entered the Jesuit novitiate at Sault-au-Récollet, Montreal. After further studies, he was ordained to the priesthood on 26 Jan. 1921. For a quarter century beginning in 1925, he was active in a “difficult and isolated ministry among the mission stations in Northern Ontario.” He was based, variously, at Sault Ste. Marie, Port Arthur, Armstrong, Garden River and Spanish. He had learned carpentry in his youth, and sometimes used his carpentry skills for repairs to churches and residences. About 1951, suffering from illnesses that made a less harsh climate advisable, he moved to the Jesuit Parish of the Gesù in Miami, Fla. He served as a priest for many years in Florida. Aged in his late 80s, he died in Miami. The funeral Mass was concelebrated in St. Finnan’s Cathedral, Alexandria, and the burial was in the Jesuit cemetery at Guelph.

Life in Dictionary of Jesuit Biography: Ministry to English Canada 1842-1987 (1991) 195-196 (QF) * Glengarry News 15 Oct. 1970 * obituary of his sister, Miss Margaret McDonald, a nurse, GN 5 Dec. 1930, repr. Fraser Obits. 192-193 with geneal. note * ordained, will celebrate Mass at Glen Nevis, 4 Feb. 1921 * to celebrate Golden Jubilee of entering novitiate, GN 21 Dec. 1955