Indexing - A special opportunity

I hadn't done indexing for a while and decided to start again. I chose to download a batch of Saskatchewan Catholic records, which were written in French. As a retired French teacher, this seemed like a perfect choice.
   As I read the name of the priest who recorded these christenings, marriages and burials, I felt a thrill! E Lacombe, OMI. Unless there were two Catholic priests by the name of Lacombe who were members of the Oblate order, this was the legendary Father Lacombe: frontier missionary and peace-maker between hostile Blackfoot, Cree and white inhabitants. He helped persuade the powerful Blackfoot Confederacy to let the CPR build railway tracks through their land. He convinced the Blackfoot Confederacy to stay out of the Northwest Rebellion. He saved hundreds and possibly thousands of lives. They loved him and trusted him and that love and trust was mutual. He was a great man by any measure. As a young priest he was transferred back to the safety and relative obscurity of serving in Quebec, but at the first opportunity he came back to live among the Indian people that he loved so much. 

By indexing records that he created, I felt privileged to be walking in the footsteps of a man I greatly admire.