Near the church are stores that sell souvenirs, bead crosses, and the like, the proceeds from which go toward the upkeep of the shrine. At certain hours each day articles thus purchased, or those the pilgrims have brought from home, are blessed by the priests in attendance. Another source of revenue is the sale of the shrine magazine, which has a circulation of about eighty thousand. Subscribers whether “living or dead, share in one daily mass” said at the shrine. Pilgrims are also invited to join the Association of the Perpetual Mass, whose members, for the sum of fifty cents a year, may share in a mass “said every day for all time.”
The Director of Pilgrimages told me that the past summer had been the best season in the history of the shrine. The pilgrims this year numbered more than three hundred thousand, their contributions were generous, and the number of cures, or “favours,” large. About one third of these, said the Director, prove to be permanent. The Fathers take the name and address of each pilgrim who claims to have experienced a miraculous cure, and inquiries are made later to find out if relief has been lasting. The shrine has quantities of letters and photographs as evidences of health and strength being restored here, and I have from eye-witnesses first-hand accounts of the joyous transports of the lame, the halt, and the blind when their ailments vanish, apparently, in the twinkling of an eye.
I have referred to Quebec as the American capital of French Catholicism. It is not only a city of many churches, but is also headquarters for numerous Catholic orders, some of which established themselves here after being driven from France. The value of their property holdings now amounts to a large sum, and one of the new real-estate sub-divisions is being developed by a clerical order. Many of the fine old mansion homes, with park-like grounds, once owned by British Canadians, are now in the hands of religious organizations. The Ursuline nuns used to own the Plains of Abraham, and were about to sell the tract for building lots when public sentiment compelled the government to purchase it and convert it into a park. A statue of General Wolfe marks the spot where he died on the battlefield. It is the third one erected there, the first two having been ruined by souvenir fiends.
The homes of the Catholic orders in Quebec supply priests for the new parishes constantly being formed in Canada. They also send their missionaries to all parts of the world, and from one of the nunneries volunteers go to the leper colonies in Madagascar. Other orders maintain hospitals, orphanages, and institutions identified with the city’s historic past. Before an altar in one of the churches two nuns, dressed in bridal white, are always praying, night and day, each couple being relieved every half hour. In another a lamp burning before a statue of the Virgin has not been extinguished since it was first lighted, fifteen years before George Washington was born. Some of the churches contain art treasures of great value, besides articles rich in their historical associations.
Driving in the outskirts of Quebec I met a party of Franciscan monks returning from their afternoon walk. They were bespectacled, studious-looking young men, clad in robes of a gingerbread brown, fastened with white girdles, and wearing sandals on their bare feet. All were tonsured, but I noticed that their shaved crowns were in many instances in need of a fresh cutting. These men alternate studies with manual labour in the fields. In front of the church of this order is a great wooden cross bearing the figure of Christ. Before it is a stone where the devout kneel and embrace His wounded feet. Near by is also a statue of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit Order, standing with one foot on the neck of a man who represents the heretics.
There are in Quebec a few thousand Irish Catholics, descendants of people who came here to escape the famine in Ireland. They have built a church of their own. Another church, shown to visitors as a curiosity, is that of the French Protestants, who, according to the latest figures, number exactly one hundred and thirty-five.
Though a city of well over one hundred thousand people, Quebec has an enviable record for peace and order and for comparatively few crimes. The credit for this is generally given to the influence of the Church, which is also responsible, so I am told, for the success of the French Canadian in “minding his own business.” The loyalty of the people to their faith is evidenced by the fact that even the smallest village has a big church. Outside the cities the priest, or curé, is in fact the shepherd of his flock, and their consultant on all sorts of matters. I am told, however, that the clergy do not exercise the same control over political and worldly affairs as was formerly the case, and not nearly so much as is generally supposed. It is still true, however, that the Catholic religion is second only to the French language in keeping the French Canadians almost a separate people.
CHAPTER IX
MONTREAL
Following the course of the French explorers, I have come up the St. Lawrence to the head of navigation, and am now in Montreal, the largest city of Canada and the second port of North America. It is an outlet for much of the grain of both the United States and Canada, and it handles one third of all the foreign trade of the Dominion. Montreal is the financial centre of the country and the headquarters for many of its largest business enterprises. In a commercial sense, it is indeed the New York of Canada, although totally unlike our metropolis.
In order to account for the importance of Montreal, it is necessary only to glance at the map. Look first at the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the broad mouth of the river! See how they form a great funnel inviting the world to pour in its people and goods. Follow the St. Lawrence down to Quebec and on by Montreal to the Great Lakes, which extend westward to the very heart of the continent. There is no such waterway on the face of the globe and none that carries such a vast commerce into the midst of a great industrial empire.