Taschereau studied at the Seminary of Quebec from 1828 to 1836, and then traveled for a year to Great Britain, the Low Countries, France, and Italy. While in Rome, he received the tonsure on May 20, 1837, and his friendship with DomProsper Guéranger, O.S.B., led him to seriously consider joining the Benedictines. Instead he continued his studies and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Quebec on 10 September 1842.[2]
As a young priest, Taschereau was involved in providing care to the Irish immigrants to Quebec fleeing the Great Famine. Due to the terrible conditions on the ships bringing the immigrants, typhus was rampant. Taschereau described one ship, the Agnes, as "the most plague-ridden ship of all and in danger of losing everyone on board." In the end, the Agnes had a death rate of forty per cent.[3]
Taschereau obtained a doctorate in canon law in Rome in 1856 and had a dual career in teaching and pastoral care. He served as a teacher, director, prefect of studies and superior at the Seminary in which he had studied for ordination. He helped found the Université Laval in 1852 and served as its second rector (1860–66, 1869–71). He remained on the staff of the Seminary until his consecration as the Archbishop of Quebec on 19 March 1871.
At the urging of the Canadian government and many of the faithful, in 1886 Pope Leo XIII made Taschereau Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, the first from Canada. He was not able to stay in his post as archbishop for long, however, as illness forced him to turn over his workload to Mgr.Louis-Nazaire Bégin, who was named as his Coadjutor Archbishop in 1892. Cardinal Taschereau died in Quebec City on April 12, 1898.
