Br. Tertullian

Elzear Poitras was born On April 18, 1835 in Quebec, Canada, one of twelve children. At age fifteen he was admitted to the Brothers' Novitiate in Montreal and on May 18, 1850, received the habit and the religious name of Brother Tertullian. He completed his Novitiate a year later and was assigned to the school in Montreal where he became the Sub-Director in 1858. In 1864 he was assigned as the Director at St. Marie in Montreal and in 1867 as the Sub-Director at Second Street in New York City. That same year he was assigned as Director of the community in Liverpool, England, and remained there for two years before he was named Sub-Director of the protectorate (orphanage) in Westchester. Brother Tertullian was named Director of the House in Glencoe, and eventually became the "first postmaster of the Glencoe Post Office." In 1882 he was sent as econome to Christian Brothers College, St. Louis, but returned as Director to Glencoe in 1896. In 1899 and 1900 he worked in Glencoe and in Feehanville caring for the farm at both places and acting as infirmarian. In 1902 he returned to CBC, St. Louis, as econome and in 1905 he was assigned to De La Salle in Chicago, Illinois. He returned to CBC, in 1906 and to Glencoe as econome in 1907. Brother Tertullian died in August of 1908 at age seventy-three, having been a De La Salle Christian Brother for fifty-eight years.