Notre-Dame de Bon Secours. Montreal's first church

proudly presents:

Notre Dame de Bon Secours Church(Our Lady of Good Help)

of

Montréal, Québec, Canada.

written & photographed by: Fergus JM Ducharme,

assisted by: Roselyn J. Parrenas & Jessica Ducharme-Gauthier.

She Who Must be Obeyed # 1(my wife Roselyn Parrenas) along with

She Who Must be Obeyed # 2(my daughter Jessica Gauthier)

At the outset I want to sincerely thank my companions on this

trip who were:

The Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel (chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours,

"Our Lady of Good Help") is a church in the district of Old Montreal in Montreal,

Quebec. One of the oldest churches in Montreal, it was built in 1771 over the ruins of

an earlier chapel.

St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, the first teacher in the colony of Ville-Marie and the

founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame, rallied the colonists to build a chapel in

1655.

In 1673, returning from France, Bourgeoys brought a wooden image of Our Lady of

Good Help; the stone church was completed in 1678. It burned in 1754, the reliquary

and statue being rescued.

After Montreal was conquered by British forces during the French and Indian War,

the church was attended by Irish and Scottish troops and families, and saw

fundraising to build Saint Patrick’s Church, Montreal's first anglophone Catholic

parish.

In the 19th century, the chapel came to be a pilgrimage site for the sailors who

arrived in the Old Port of Montreal; they would make offerings to the Virgin in

gratitude for her "good help" for safe sea voyages.

In 1849, Mgr. Ignace Bourget, the Bishop of Montreal , gave the chapel a statue of

the Virgin as Star of the Sea, which was placed atop the church overlooking the

harbour. Emphasizing the connection of the chapel and the port, the chapel is often

called the Sailors' Church.

The chapel now also houses the Margeurite Bourgeoys Museum, dedicated to the life

of St. Marguerite Bourgeoys and to the early history of Montreal and the chapel site.

Below the chapel, the crypt is being excavated as an archeological site. First Nations

and French Colonial artifacts have been discovered, along with the foundations of the

first chapel and the fortifications of the colony.

In 2005, Marguerite Bourgeoy's mortal remains were brought back to the church,

where she now lies in the sanctuary.

Monseigneur Ignace Bourget, Bishop

of Montreal. Born: Levis,October 30,

1799 & Died: Montreal, June 8, 1885.

Installed as Bishop: April 28, 1840 his

term ended May 11, 1876 when he

“retired”.

The foundations of the original

Chapel built by Margeurite

Bourgeoys in 1655; found during

archeological excavations under

the current church.

14

The former Rasco

Hotel, dating from 1834,

was considered one of

the most luxurious in the

country.

Charles Dickens stayed

here in 1842, when he

spent was in Montreal to

direct three of his plays

at the Royal Theatre

that once stood just

across the street from

the Hotel.

Francesco Rasco and

other Italians were kings

of the Montréal hotel

industry in the 19th

century.

16

18

19

20

26

29

30

33

After the fall of Montreal to the British. The garrison included Irish and Scottish

families who attended services at Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours. It was from this

community that money was raised to begin construction of Saint Patrick’s,

Montreal’s first parish for the English-speaking community.

Under the choir loft, you spot an intriguing painting, the gift of Bishop Bourget in

1849. This votive offering was a gift in thanksgiving for the end of the typhus

epidemic that struck the city in 1847 with the arrival of immigrants in fever ships.

Another of his gifts, the statue by Charles Dauphin called Star of the Sea, was

raised to the roof of the chapel overlooking the port.

Notre-Dame de Bon Secours

The Pierre du Calvet house, built in 1770 and nicely restored in 1966, is an

impressive sight. But in the 18th-century fortified town, the customers of the owner,

a Huguenot merchant and supporter of the American Revolution, probably saw

nothing unusual about the building. With its steeply pitched roof, its fieldstone walls

secured with "S"-shaped iron bars and its casement windows, it was typical of the

period. Note the end walls, which extend above the line of the roof as firebreaks.

This type of construction became mandatory after the great fire of 1721.

Notre-Dame de Bon Secours Church

The rebellion of Lower Canada continued in 1838 and is often called Les rébellions de

1837–38 in Quebec. The actions of the rebels resulted in the declaration of martial law,

and a first armed conflict occurred in 1837 when the 26 members of the Patriote

movement who had been charged with illegal activities chose to resist their arrest by the

authorities under the direction of John Colbourne.

In 1838, two major armed conflicts occurred when groups of Lower

Canadian Patriotes led by Robert Nelson crossed the American border in an attempt to

invade Lower Canada and Upper Canada, drive the British army out and establish

independent republics, including the Republic of Lower Canada.

These events are often misreported which moves the attention away from three decades

of political battles between the Parti Patriote of James Stuart and Louis-Joseph

Papineau, who were seeking accountability from the elected government and governor

of the colony.

However, the unelected body was dominated by a small group of mainly businessmen

known as the Chateau Clique, the equivalent of the Family Compact in Upper Canada.

Lower Canada=today’s province of Quebec / Upper Canada=today’s province of Ontario

The movement for reform took shape in a period of economic disfranchisement of the

French-speaking majority and working-class English-speaking citizens. But the rebellion

focused on the unfairness of colonial governing as such, as many of the leaders and

participants were English-speaking citizens of Lower Canada. In banking, the timber

trade, and transportation, Anglophones were seen as disproportionately represented.

At the same time, some among the Anglophone business elite were advocating for a

union of Upper and Lower Canada to ensure competitiveness on a national scale with

the increasingly large and powerful economy of the United States (who, in part, inspired

the rebels by their own successful war of independence).

The unification of the colony was a plan favoured by the British-appointed

governor, George Ramsey, The Earl of Dalhousie. The reaction was a growing sense of

nationalism among English and the French-speaking citizens, which solidified into

the Parti canadien (after 1826 called the Parti patriote).

In 1811, James Stuart became leader of the Parti canadien in the assembly and in 1815,

reformer Louis-Joseph Papineau was elected Assembly speaker. The Assembly, while

elected, had little power; its decisions could be vetoed by a legislative council and the

governor appointed by the British government.

Dalhousie and Papineau were soon at odds over the issue of uniting the Canadas.

Dalhousie forced an election in 1827 rather than accept Papineau as speaker.

Sympathizers of the reform movement in England had Dalhousie forced from his

position and reappointed to India. Still, the legislative council and the assembly were not

able to reach a compromise. By 1834, the assembly had passed the 92 resolutions,

outlining its grievances against the legislative council.

At that point, the Patriote movement was supported by an overwhelming majority of the

population of all origins.

Later in 1834, the Parti Patriote swept the election with more than three-quarters of the

popular vote. However, the reformers in Lower Canada were divided over several

issues. A moderate reformer named John Neilson had quit the party in 1830 and joined

the Constitutional Association four years later. Papineau's anti-clerical position alienated

reformers in the Catholic Church, and his support for secular rather than religious

schools made him a powerful enemy in Bishop Jean-Jacques Lartigue. Lartigue called

on all Catholics to reject the reform movement and support the authorities, forcing many

to choose between their religion and their political conviction

However, Papineau continued to push for reform. He petitioned the British

government to bring about reform, but in March 1837 the government of Lord

Melbourne rejected all of Papineau's requests. Papineau then organized protests

and assemblies, and eventually approved the paramilitary Sociuete des files de la

liberte (Society of the Sons of Liberty) during the Assemblee des six-comtes (The

Assembly of the 6 counties)

Papineau escaped to the United States, but the rebels set themselves up in the

countryside. Led by Wolfred Nelson, they defeated a British force at Saint-Denis on

November 23rd . However, the British troops soon beat back the rebels, defeating

them at Saint-Charles on November 25th and at St-Eustache on December 14th .

Saint-Eustache was then pillaged and ransacked. On December 5th martial law was

declared in Montreal. When news of the arrest of the Patriote leaders reached Upper

Canada, William Lyon MacKenzie launched an armed rebellion in December 1837.

In the meantime, filibusters from the United States, the Hunter Patriots formed a

small militia and attacked Windsor, in Upper Canada, to further support the

Canadian Patriots.

These revolts were quickly put down. The following year, leaders who had escaped

across the border into the United States raided Lower Canada in February 1838. A

second revolt began at the Battle of Beauharnois in November of the same year. This

too was crushed by the British.

Britain dispatched Lord Durham to investigate the cause of the rebellion. His

report recommended that the Canadas be united into one colony (the Province of

Canada) to assimilate the French-speaking canadiens into the Anglophone, British

culture. However, he recommended acceding to the rebels' grievances by granting

responsible government to the new colony.

Following the military defeat of the patriotes, Lower Canada was merged with Upper

Canada under the Union Act. The canadiens barely remained a majority in the new

political entity and with continued emigration to the English-speaking part of Canada,

this dominance was short lived.

Eight years after Union, responsible government was set up in the united Province of

Canada. The great instability of this new regime led to the formation of the Great

Coaltion and another major constitutional change, Canadian Confederation in 1867.

The rebellion of the patriotes canadiens of Lower Canada, taken along with the Upper

Canadian Rebellion, is often seen as the example of what might have happened to the

United States of America if the American Revolutionary War had failed.

In Quebec, the rebellion (as well as the parliamentary and popular struggle) is now

commemorated as the Journee nationale des patriotes (National Patriots Day) by the

use of the Canadian Statutory Holiday on Victoria Day which is normally celebrated on

the third Monday of May.

It has become a symbol for the contemporary Quebec Independence Movement and to

a much lesser extent a symbol of Canada's small almost insignificant republican

movement.

We want to thank the following for their contributions to this article:

Photos provided by: ,

Other materials and some photos provided by: www.wikipedia.org

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

If you have suggestions or recommendations on how we can

improve this service for you please e-mail your ideas along to:

[email protected]

Visit our main website at either of the addresses below:

or Like Us on Facebook at:

www.facebook.com/historicoldphilippines

www.historicphilippines.com or www.oldphilippines.com

Just a few of the churches Historic Philippines

has visited & reported on just for you!