December 12, 1885 - Louis Riel’s funeral takes place at St Boniface Cathedral, Winnipeg.
12/12/2009 at 9:12 AM
After a Commission was unable to pronounce Riel insane, the date for his execution was set for November 16th. While being in his death cell he was allowed a family visit, and on November 6th he wrote his Will.
During the evening of November 15th and early hours of the 16th he penned one last letter to his mother, and then received the ‘Last rights’. At 8 a.m. he was escorted up the stairs of the scaffold and executed.
On November 19th 1885 at St. Mary’s Church in Regina, a service was held for the repose of his soul. On December 9th his body was returned to St. Vital, Winnipeg where it lay in state for two days at his mothers house.
On December 12th a Requiem Mass was sung at St. Boniface Cathedral after which his body was interned in the churchyard.
Note: Nancy Millar wrote that the government gave permission to Louis Riel’s mother to have his body on condition that he was not given a formal funeral.
This condition was ignored as he was given the most formal funeral Western Canada has ever seen, beginning with a one-hour eulogy by the Archbishop and including the reading of a Telegram from the Pope.
The Cortege was ¾ mile long.
Source:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/riel/riel.html