- The house
- The Christian community and the parish
- The Church
- The academy of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre
- The school of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre
The house
On their arrival in Canada, in December 1841, the six Oblates: Fathers Jean-Baptiste Honorat, Adrien Telmon, Jean Baudrand and Lucien Lagier and the Brothers Basile Fastray and Louis Roux, went to the parish of Saint-Hilaire-de-Rouville, on the Richelieu River, about 35 kilometres north-east of Montreal. That was the first establishment of the Congregation on Canadian soil. Less than one year later, in the month of August 1842, they left Saint-Hilaire and went to live at Longueuil, where they remained until 1851.
Bishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal wished to establish the Oblates near him, in the city of Montreal itself. However, there was opposition from certain members of the clergy and especially the staff of the seminary, who were the Priests of Saint-Sulpice, and who were in charge of the only parish in the city, that of Notre-Dame. Consequently the bishop had to delay the establishment of the Oblates until 1848. On April 10 of that year he announced to the Founder that he was preparing an establishment in the centre of one of the city suburbs, on Visitation Street. The official act of foundation of the Montreal residence was signed by Bishop Bruno Guigues, o.m.i., of Bytown, on September 1, 1848. He was the visitor extraordinary on that occasion. During the summer, Bishop Bourget had a residence prepared in the Quebec suburb, a poor area situated not far from his Episcopal residence of Saint-Jacques. He had bought a number of pieces of land on which there was already a two-storey house, a stable, a shed and some outhouses. He made a gift of that to the Oblates in 1851 and 1853. Later, the Oblates were to purchase other properties. The shed, which had been used as a bowling alley, was transformed and repaired to make a chapel. On November 15, 1848, Fathers Jean-Claude Léonard and Jean-Pierre Bernard took possession of the new establishment and on the following December 8, the Bishop of Montreal came in person to for the solemn blessing of the chapel dedicated to Saint Peter. This chapel was to serve a “rather poor population, half of whom were unable to reach the big parish church because of their poverty” (Arrivée des Oblats à Saint-Pierre, p.5, a little notebook preserved in the Provincial archives in Montreal and quoted by Carrière in Histoire documentaire… I, p.173).
Saint-Pierre-Apôtre, Montréal (AD)
The Oblates stayed in a house which measured ten metres by twelve and, for their meals, even in winter, had to go to a neighbouring house. It was necessary to build a more suitable and more spacious dwelling. On March 11, 1850 Bishop de Mazenod wrote to Bishop Guigues: “We must not forget that the mission of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre will become the principal house in Lower-Canada (Quebec). It must therefore be built with suitable dimensions, not merely for the three or four who form today’s community, but for a very numerous community” (See Oblate Writings I, Vol.3: Letters to North America 1841-1850, I, N. 129, p. 237). Building began on September 28, 1854 and was not completed until March 1, 1856. The accommodation proved sufficient until 1898 when plans were made for a further extension, which was not completed until 1922-1923. It was then decided to extend the central part of the building on the side opposite the schoolhouse, an annexe built in 1868 to serve as a boys’ school. In that way the house was connected to the church. This building included the dining room and three floors of offices and bedrooms, as well as the community chapel.
Besides the work that the Oblates were already doing in the church where they ministered, they took on more and more ministries as the community increased. They continued to develop primary missionary work in the country: the preaching of missions and parish and religious retreats. In the beginning they often accompanied the bishop of Montreal in his pastoral visits. They would later do likewise with the bishops of other dioceses. The missionaries, who did much preaching in the parish of Saint-Pierre, extended their apostolate of the Word throughout Quebec, and in other provinces of Canada as well as in the northern provinces of the United States. They animated parish retreats of one or of several weeks, retreats for priests and seminarians, for religious men and women, retreats in colleges and universities and, on occasion they preached for triduums and feasts of various kinds.
For a long time, besides the priests of the parish and the provincial administration, the community of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre included among its members five or six mission preachers. However, quite frequently the parish clergy and even the Provincial gave retreats. The Oblates also took on the chaplaincy of different religious institutes situated in the parish or in nearby areas: The Sisters of Hope of the Holy Family of Bordeaux, the Sisters of Mercy with their hospital for elderly ladies, the Sisters of Providence who had a school and an orphanage, the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame who had one of the parish schools, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family who, from 1908 to 1989, provided the kitchen, laundry and cleaning services, and finally, the Marist Brothers who ran the school of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre.
In 1851 Father Henry Tempier made a visitation of the Province of Canada. At the end of August, a number of Fathers left for Buffalo in New York State to undertake the management of a seminary and a college.
In 1853, the Oblates went to found a house in Plattsburgh in the state of New York, and in Detroit and Michigan. That same year, Bishop Bourget asked them take on the apostolate among the coach drivers and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. The following year he entrusted them with temperance work. At the end of 1854 they founded a house in Burlington, Vermont. In 1856, an Oblate from Saint-Pierre-Apôtre took charge of the mission to Amerindians in Kahnawake, near Montreal, while Father Adrien Telmon and four missionary companions set out for Galveston, Texas.
In 1893, Father Louis Gladu founded a society for vocations and he provided it with a periodical: La Bannière de Marie Immaculée. That publication was intended to make the missionary and apostolic work of the Oblates known and also to help support the Sacred Heart juniorate in Ottawa. It continued to appear regularly until 1966.
The house of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre was first used as the Provincial House during the mandate of Father Jacques Santoni, from 1851 to 1856. When Bishop Guigues became Provincial, in 1856, the provincial administration changed to Ottawa. On the appointment of Father Tabaret as provincial, 1864, it was transferred back to Saint-Pierre-Apôtre. It remained there until 1951. On July 18 of that year, nine Oblates left Saint-Pierre-Apôtre and went to live in a house recently acquired on Ontario Avenue (since become Avenue du Musée). Five Sisters of the Holy Family of Sherbrooke, also went along to take care of the same services they had provided at Saint-Pierre-Apôtre.
The novitiate had been in the house in Longueuil from 1842 to 1849. It was then transferred to the bishop’s house in Ottawa (1849-1851), then to Saint-Pierre-Apôtre in Montreal where it remained from 1851 to 1855 and from1864 to 1866. It was then given a more permanent setting in Lachine, near Montreal.
When the Second World War broke out (1939-1945), communications with Europe became difficult, ad particularly with the General Administration, which had been transferred to France. Father Anthyme Desnoyers, assistant general, had to return to Canada in July 1940, with almost all the Canadian Oblates who had been in the General House. In 1943 he was appointed Vicar General of the Congregation for the Provinces and Vicariates of America, Africa, and Ceylon. He continued in this office until 1946, with residence in Saint-Pierre-Apôtre.
The house of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre has always provided lodging for Oblates passing through or visiting Montreal. Until 1958, when the Oblate missionary centre was founded in the eastern part of the city, the house received numerous missionaries from the West and North of Canada on their way to Europe or returning to their mission. Some, who had to collect the funds necessary to support their mission, spent long periods there.
On October 5, 1977, the quadrangle occupied by the Oblate property was declared a historic site by the cultural affairs ministry of the Quebec government. Considerable work was undertaken from June 1977 to January 1979 to renew the whole interior of the house.
The Christian community and the parish
By taking up their position in Montreal the Oblates secured a starting point from which to radiate throughout the diocese and often beyond, throughout Quebec, throughout Canada and even in the United States. Fathers Jean-Claude Léonard and Jean-Pierre Bernard discovered that the Quebec suburb of Montreal was not merely poor but, at that time, home to what was considered a marginal population. They frequented little the only parish church of Montreal, Notre-Dame. It was an ill-famed area because of the gaming places, pawnshops and drinking haunts, which were plentiful. Father Jacques Santoni, Provincial, in a report to the Founder in 1851, wrote: “Poor in the goods of the world, but especially in virtue, the suburb was a veritable cesspool of vice for the city and the countryside, it was the haunt of every vice. Blasphemy was so common that you could scarcely go out without hearing it. Within families there was continuous quarrelling and fighting, caused by the unrestrained passion for strong drink.” (in General Archives, dossier Montreal: Saint-Pierre, Foundation, quoted by GastonCarrière, opus cit., I, p. 175).
Fathers Léonard and Bernard got down to work immediately. They gave a six-week mission who coincided with to the great mission preached throughout the parishes of Montreal. Bishop Bourget wrote to Bishop de Mazenod: “As for the city, the good they are doing is already wonderful and I am consoled to be able to say so.”
The Oblates were the first in Canada to establish a sodality of the Children of Mary, under the title of Daughters of the Immaculate Conception, in the parish of Saint-Hilaire. In 1849 it was one of the first organizations they founded in Saint-Pierre-Apôtre. In the following year they set up the Congregation of the Ladies of Saint Anne, also the first in Canada. In 1869 they founded a society for married men and, in 1870, for young men. In 1849 they organized the arch-confraternity of the Sacred Heart. The Conference of Saint Vincent de Paul was founded in Saint-Pierre-Apôtre in 1852. In 1900, when the Oblates were invited to found a parish based on Saint-Pierre-Apôtre, they were given the smallest territory in the whole diocese. The parish was founded on October 10, 1900. The Oblates were then autonomous and no longer depended on their neighbouring pastors. They had assured revenue but there were no less difficulties to be dealt with. In fact, the population became poorer. The better off citizens went off to the north of the city and a large part of the territory near the river was appropriated to make way for the Canadian-Pacific Railway. For a long time the parish of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre had between 1,600 and 1,900 families.
After the First World War (1914-1918) the situation of the parish began to deteriorate. The population decreased and became poorer. It became more urbanized and the parish suffered from the commercial forms of entertainment that competed with the pastimes offered by the parish. Nevertheless, religious practice continued to be intense. It was the social life of the citizens that became absorbed by that of the city. Many of the activities traditionally associated with the parish were now organized on a diocesan basis: the society of Saint Vincent de Paul, for example, or the youth organizations. It was in Saint-Pierre-Apôtre that Father Henri Roy founded the first section of the JOC (Jeunesse ouvrière catholique, Young Christian Workers) in 1932.
On November 27, 1927 a parish committee was set up composed of two delegates from each organisation in the parish. On December 22, 1946, Father Gabriel Sarrasin launched officially the plan of a social Service to provide works of mercy, both spiritual and corporal, which were not included in the welfare organizations already existing. The first activity was to provide a nursing service to assist the dying and to provide professional care for the more needy.
June 11, 1953 saw the founding of a musical group: The Little singers of the Immaculate.
In 1962 there were 1,319 families in the parish with a total population of 5,589 French-speaking parishioners. The Canadian government decided to found the house of the Société Radio-Canada, a radio and television network in an area where it would be necessary to demolish most of the houses of the parish to construct the new building.
On July 1, 1963, two parish institutions disappeared: the Ville-Marie school, which had been directed by the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre-Dame since 1833, and the Saint Vincent de Paul Shelter which had been founded in 1855. In that same year, four hundred families who had lived in the area now to be occupied by the new Radio-Canada radio and television station, left the parish.
On April 28, 1965, the Provincial informed the community that it had been decided to leave the parish and to sell the Saint-Pierre-Apôtre property: the church, the house and the school, with the intention, nevertheless, of taking another apostolate in the diocese of Montreal. An auctioneer had already been contracted to find a purchaser. On September 14, 1965, an article appeared in the Montreal daily (La Presse) announcing that a thirty-four storey building was to be constructed on the site of the church, house and school. On November 9, 1966, the community learned that the Provincial in council had rescinded the decision to sell the property of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre. No serious purchaser had come forward.
On April 14, 1975, the Provincial council accepted the suggestion of the Archbishop of Montreal to amalgamate the parish of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre with the neighbouring one of Sainte-Brigide. A society would be formed which would become the proprietor of the two churches. The church of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre would be the principal place of worship. The plan to amalgamate with the parish of Sainte-Brigide was abandoned 1976. In 1982 another attempt was made but that also came to nothing. Again, a new plan was studied in 1997 but no solution was reached.
The Church
In 1848 Bishop Bourget acquired a wooden building measuring about 25 metres by 10 which he had adapted to serve as a church in anticipation of the arrival of the Oblates. Two years later it had become urgent to provide a more spacious church, as we learn from the parish archives: “Father Léonard, when he went to the general chapter (1850) brought with him a plan for the Superior General. He came back without a reply. Nevertheless things became increasingly urgent. The chapel had become too small and too uncomfortable. It was just too tiring.” This chapel continued in use until the church was completed in June 1853. Father Léonard entrusted Victor Bourgeau with the task of preparing a new plan. He had been chosen because of his reputation and his expertise. “This simple carpenter, with little education but with natural genius and wishing to try his hand at the art and architecture of church building, offered his services free of charge. The style decided upon was the gothic which seemed the most adapted to Catholic sentiment” (Codex Historicus). Work began on February 1, 1851 and was finished on June 26, 1853. The stained glass windows were made by Champigneul, in Bar-le-Duc, in France. The altars are the work of Victor Bourgeau and were made in Montreal. In 1854 the choir stalls were completed. Because of lack of funds it was not until three years later that the organ was purchased. It was built by Samuel R. Warren of Montreal and then, remade and considerably enlarged in 1908 by Casavant Frères of Saint-Hyacinthe. The bell tower was erected in 1875. In 1881, one of the five original side altars was replaced by the chapel of the Sacred Heart, which occupies a wider space than the others. In 1889 it was decided to install a carillon of thirteen bells in the bell tower and an electric clock. However, the bells sank with the boat that was carrying them and it was not possible to recuperate and install them until the autumn of the following year.
Inside Saint-Pierre-Apôtre Church (AD)
In February 1930 a parish hall was inaugurated in the crypt of the church. The following year it was used as a place for the liturgy while the church was being refurbished. In spite of the heavy debt which still continued on the church, it was decided to make it fire proof, to repaint it, to clean the stained glass windows and repair the organ. Work was completed on December 8, 1831.
In May 1922 a new sacristy was built, together with a parish library, a meeting room, a baptismal chapel with sacristy and office alongside.
On February 16, 1896 a chapel was inaugurated and dedicated to the Founder of the Oblates. The Provincial decided that the church of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre should become the provincial centre of devotion to Eugene de Mazenod. The chapel contained a reproduction of the altar of vows and of the statue of the Immaculate Conception that are in the General House. The tabernacle of the altar contained a relic of the Founder’s heart that had been donated for the chapel in 1985. Unfortunately, the relic was stolen on October 17, 1988 and has never been recovered. In 1995, on the occasion of the canonization of Saint Eugene de Mazenod, a statue of the saint was erected in the church. It was a reproduction of that in the Founder’s chapel in the General House. In 1996 the Founder’s chapel disappeared. It was chosen to replace it with a chapel commemorating the victims of Aids and it is situated in the chapel of the Sacred Heart.
The academy of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre
Anxious to ensure the Christian formation of the boys in the area and to provide them with an education, on May 1, 1859, Father Léonard founded the Saint-Pierre academy. In the following October, the school was installed in a house which had been transformed. It was on land adjoining the Oblates at number 7, Rose Street. There were three teachers for eighty boys. In 1868 the present academy was built on Visitation Street and attached to the Oblate house. It was inaugurated on April 29, 1869. The Marist Brothers arrived in Montreal on August 24, 1866 and took charge of the teaching, which until then had been in the hands of lay teachers. They remained until 1906. The building retained the title of academy, but housed the chapel of parish societies until 1949 and also, in the crypt, the recreation centre of the parish.
In August 1952 the premises of the academy were transformed. The Sisters were to occupy the second floor where the chapel had been previously. The first floor was taken over by the social services while the recreation centre of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre remained in its place in the crypt.
The school of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre
On November 23, 1886, the then superior, Father Joseph Lefebvre, suggested the building of a new school to complete the then academy. The upper storey was being used as a chapel for the young men and boys and the ground floor as a meeting room and leisure centre for the Cercle Saint-Pierre-Apôtre. Only four rooms remained for classes. As many pupils had to be refused as were admitted. It was then decided to transform the then classrooms into lodgings for the Marist Brothers and to build a new school on the corner of Rose Street and Panet Street. It was to have three floors and an attic.
On April 25, 1894, at the request of the Oblates, the school was transferred to the control of the schools Commission for the Catholic schools of Montreal which would henceforth provide for financing it. In 1912, the school was rented to the same Commission for 99 years. On April 21, 1905, the foundations were laid for an extension to the school that would provide living quarters for the Marist Brothers.
On June 21, 1961, it was announced that the Marist Brothers would leave the Saint-Pierre-Apôtre school at the end of the last term. In autumn, the school was to be administered exclusively by lay people. The part formerly occupied by the Marist Brothers was to become the quarters of the Catholic Youth Movement (J.O.C.). After the closure of the school the premises were given back to the Oblates who, from 1977 onwards, used them as the Centre Saint-Pierre.
Maurice Lesage, o.m.i.
