St. Patrick Is Home to Montreal's English-Speaking Catholics

By Linda Busetti
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 7/11/02)

MONTREAL — Office workers eat lunch on the grounds of St. Patrick Basilica on Boulevard René-Lévesque amid the high rise buildings of downtown Montreal.

The more than 150-year-old Gothic church, which sits on Beaver Hall Hill, once had a clear view of the working-class Irish neighborhoods below and the St. Lawrence River. Today the outer stone walls have been darkened by pollution, but the interior is still richly decorated.

English-speaking Catholics in Montreal first worshiped in the Church of Bonsecours, brought together by Father Richard Jackson, a priest of St. Sulpice who was born in Alexandria, Va., and arrived in Montreal in 1807.

The congregation grew and moved to the Church of the Recollets. In 1841, with the parish numbering 6,500, a fundraising campaign was launched for a new church. Construction soon began on St. Patrick, which was designed by architect P.L. Morin.

Stone for the four-foot thick church walls was quarried in Montreal. Interior massive pillars of pine rose 80 feet. By 1847, the new church steeple reached a height of 228 feet.

A Pontifical High Mass was celebrated for the first time on March 17, 1847, the Feast of St. Patrick.

During celebration of St. Patrick’s feast day in 1989, Montreal Cardinal Paul Grégoire announced that the church, home to Montreal’s English-speaking Catholics, had been raised to the status of basilica by the Vatican.

Throughout the basilica’s nave, oak wainscoting lines the walls, along which 150 oil-painted figures of saints appear in gothic panels. Symbolic shamrocks and fleur de lys used to decorate the walls serve as reminders of the basilica’s Irish and French heritage.

An elaborate mural of gold fills the walls and ceiling of the sanctuary and is divided to resemble a Venetian mosaic.

St. Patrick features beautiful tall, narrow stained-glass windows in two styles, depending on whether they were made by artists in Innsbruck, Austria, or by Alex S. Locke of Brooklyn, N.Y. One window features the basilica’s patron saint.

The pews, which are made of red Indiana oak, date back to 1894. Another example of the basilica’s fine woodwork is the old pulpit, which is decorated with gothic panels representing the apostles. Above is an ornate lighting fixture with an image of the Holy Spirit in the center.

A choir loft that seats 100 singers was added in 1894. Elegantly curved stairways lead to the gallery and choir loft.

The original organ, built by the Warren Company of England, was installed in 1852. Over the years it has been rebuilt by Casavant Frères of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. In 1972, Orgue Providence Inc. of St. Hyacinthe integrated the organ from Montreal’s St. Anthony Church, which was demolished, with St. Patrick’s Casavant organ.

During the basilica’s restoration program in 1989, serious defects in the belfry were repaired and its 10 bells became functional for the first time in many years. Among the bells is one known as "Charlotte," which was cast in 1774 and once hung in the former parish church of Notre Dame that was demolished in 1843.

Among St. Patrick’s well-known parishioners have been Cardinal Emmett Carter and the late Archbishop Gerald Berry of Halifax who served at St. Patrick as altar boys. The state funeral for notable Irish-Canadian statesman and longtime parishioner Thomas D’Arcy McGee, who was assassinated in 1868, was held at St. Patrick. His pulpit aisle pew bears a white enamel shield as a memorial.

St. Patrick was declared an historic monument in 1985 by the Quebec Ministry of Cultural Affairs. 

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