Churches of Montreal
Notre-Dame Basilica
116 Notre Dame Street West, on Place d'Armes
Metro Place d'Armes
Wikipedia entry
Don't expect Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica to have anything in common with Paris's Notre-Dame except the name. It's a Victorian Gothic building dating from 1829, constructed on the site of a much older and smaller church which had been outgrown by its parishioners.
Notre-Dame is noted for its lavish and beautiful interior, completed towards the close of the 19th century – stained glass windows, gold-tipped polychrome carvings, paintings, carvings, statues, and especially its resplendent blue and gold altarpiece. It also has a notable Casavant organ and its biggest bell, le Gros Bourdon, is the largest on the continent.
A second, smaller chapel behind the main church, Notre-Dame-de-Sacré-Coeur, also known as the wedding chapel, was damaged in a fire in 1978, but was reopened in 1982 with a massive modern altarpiece by Quebec sculptor Charles Daudelin.
Notre-Dame is not a cathedral, but has been the site of funerals for public figures as diverse as Pierre Trudeau and Maurice Richard and, perhaps most notoriously, the wedding of Céline Dion.
Marie-Reine-du-Monde
René-Lévesque at rue de la Cathédrale
Wikipedia entry
Completed in 1894, Montreal's Roman Catholic cathedral was designed as a one-third scale replica of St. Peter's in Rome, down to a copy of Bernini's golden baldacchino over the altar. Even at this scale the church is pretty grandiose in effect. Originally named Saint-Jacques or St. James, it was given the new name Mary Queen of the World by Pope Pius XII at the request of Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger in 1955.
As you enter, on the left, there is an elaborate gated crypt that contains the tombs of the city's archbishops and cardinals, including that of Bishop Ignace Bourget, who spearheaded the cathedral building project. The walls of the church contain several large paintings of events in the history of Nouvelle-France, mostly by artist Georges Delfosse, and one detects no irony in passing from a depiction of the conversion of the "savage" to another showing a fiery attack on the colony.
The front of the church is topped by statues, not of the Apostles as is St. Peter's, but of the patron saints of thirteen Montreal parishes which donated significant sums toward the cathedral's construction.
Chapelle Notre Dame de Bon-Secours
400 rue Saint-Paul E. (its back wall facing the Old Port)
Métro Champ-de-Mars
Wikipedia entry
There is a museum and gift shop, and visitors can pay a small fee to climb the tower, which gives a good view of the Jacques-Cartier bridge and the Clock Tower, over to Île Ste-Hélène, westward over the Old Port, and a close-up view of the church's own angel statues. The statue of the Virgin Mary atop the church, facing the port, is celebrated in Leonard Cohen's song "Suzanne" as Our Lady of the Harbour. There is also an archaeological site in the crypt that can be visited, which goes back to some of the earliest European settlement in the area: there has been a chapel on this spot since 1675.
St. Joseph's Oratory
3800 Queen Mary Road
Metro Côte-des-Neiges
Wikipedia entry
A major site of Roman Catholic pilgrimage and worship, St. Joseph's Oratory began with the devotional impulse of a humble monk who worked as a porter at the classical college opposite the Oratory on Queen Mary Road. Frère André's original tiny chapel, begun in 1904, still stands on the west side of the massive church shown here, and can be visited. The Oratory was begun in 1924 and finished in 1956. The dome is the world's second largest of its kind, after St. Peter's in Rome, and the church is the largest in Canada.
Religious visitors sometimes climb the steps on their knees, praying at every step; more pragmatic ones walk up normally or take one of the free shuttle buses from the base.
Inside there are essentially two large churches one atop the other. A more traditional church, the Crypt Church, holds the usual masses, and the upper church built inside the dome is bigger, starker and more modern. As well, there are side chapels, including the candlelit hall leading to Frère André's tomb, the heart of Frère André on display, and a memorial exhibit. Frère André was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982. He remains a very popular figure among Montreal's Catholics and a statue of him stands on a downtown square on René-Lévesque at Beaver Hall Hill.
Christ Church Cathedral
Ste-Catherine at Union
McGill metro
Wikipedia entry
Montreal's Anglican cathedral was completed in 1859. By the 20th century its steeple was found to be sinking into the ground, so it was replaced in 1940 with an aluminum replica which still stands there today. Christ Church Cathedral is located directly at McGill metro, amidst some of Montreal's oldest and best known shopping establishments and above part of the underground city. In 1987 the entire church was held up on metal pilings for months while a shopping mall, the Promenades de la Cathédrale, was built underneath it. At the same time, the large pink glass office building (which has had several names but is currently called the Tour KPMG) was constructed right behind the church.
Christ Church Cathedral is well known for its choral and organ music concerts. Behind it, half hidden between its back wall and the office building, is a small public square dedicated to the memory of Raoul Wallenberg. It's a pleasant and sheltered spot in one of the busiest parts of the city.
The house which was originally the church's presbytery is now a French restaurant. The trees out front are mostly ginkgos.
St. James United
463 Ste-Catherine West
McGill metro
Wikipedia entry
Built in 1889, St. James was once the biggest Methodist church in Canada but became affiliated to the United Church in 1925 when the Methodists merged with several other denominations to create the second largest Christian denomination in the country.
In 1927, needing funds, the church permitted the construction of a commercial building across its façade on Ste-Catherine. Only a modest doorway and neon sign marked the entrance to the church, which also harboured a number of offices and other businesses in a false apse built around the structure. The existence of a major church behind the storefronts was not exactly forgotten, but the church's façade was hidden from sight for 78 years and its steeples floating above the street generally went unnoticed.
In 2005, government grants allowed the partial demolition of the commercial row and the restoration of the strikingly ornate façade and front steps of the church, which can still startle longtime Montrealers accustomed to seeing a row of shops and boutiques along the block between City Councillors and St-Alexandre. The photo gives a sense of how the church is still embedded in a very commercial part of town.
St. Patrick's Basilica
460 René-Lévesque W. near Beaver Hall Hill
(entry customarily by side doors)
Wikipedia entry
Regarded as the mother church of Montreal's many citizens of Irish Catholic descent, this downtown church is less a tourist spot, more a cool and quiet retreat. Inaugurated in 1847, the tall, elegant Gothic structure has been extensively restored in recent years. The elaborate yet monochrome altarpiece, the heavy altar lamp with angels, and the ornate stained glass are all notable features. The pew of D'Arcy McGee and a plaque commemorating the baptism of Émile Nelligan are among the historical details to be found in the church.
