Édouard-Charles Fabre was born on February 28, 1827, in Montreal, Quebec.

He was a Catholic priest. He studied theology at the seminary of Saint-Sulpice at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris (1844-1846). After visiting Rome and meeting Pope Pius IX, he returned to Montreal and was ordained as a priest in 1850. He served as a vicar in Sorel from 1850 to 1852, and then as a parish priest in Pointe-Claire (1852-1854) and in Montreal at the cathedral of Saint-Jacques (1856). During the following years, he participated in the administration of the diocese of Montreal. In 1876, Fabre became the third bishop of Montreal. In 1886, Pope Leo XIII made him Archbishop of Montreal, and in 1887, the dioceses of Sherbrooke and Saint-Hyacinthe. In 1889, he obtained from Rome a certain autonomy for the branch of Laval University in Montreal. He continued the construction of the cathedral of Saint-Jacques, now the Cathedral Basilica of Marie-Reine-du-Monde-et-Saint-Jacques. He inaugurated the building in 1894. During his episcopate, he welcomed ten European religious communities and founded 16 new parishes in the Montreal diocese. The parish municipality of Saint-Édouard-de-Fabre, Quebec, was named after him. The Montreal metro station Fabre is also named after him.

He died on December 30, 1896, in Montreal, Quebec.