In 1676 a meeting was held, on January 26th, to raise funds for the completion of the church, and it was determined to hold a canvass in the island, which resulted in a collection of 2,070 livres; and finally, although M. Souart had engaged himself to furnish the necessary wood, all this assistance was insufficient, and the church building, dragging on for two years, was not finished till 1678. The church was in the form of a Latin cross, with "bas côtés," terminated by a circular apse; its front entrance at the south end, built of cut stone, was composed of two orders, Indian and Doric, the last being surmounted by a triangular pediment. The beautiful entrance, erected after the plans of the king's engineer, Chaussegros de Léry, in 1722, was flanked on the right by a square tower with a square belfry tower, surmounted by a fleur-de-lys cross twenty-four feet high. The church was built directly in the middle of Notre-Dame Street and projected into Place d'Armes Square, measuring 140 feet long, 96 broad, while the tower was 144 feet high. This first church of Notre-Dame was of rough stone pointed with mortar. [117]
The erection of the parish church now being on its way permitted funds for the long deferred church of Bon Secours, also to be gathered. The miraculous statute brought from France was meanwhile housed in the little wooden chapel raised in 1657 by Marguerite Bourgeoys before leaving for France and there it remained till the new stone building was commenced. It was not, however, till June 29th, the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, in the year 1675, that M. Souart placed the first stone in the name of M. de Fanchamp, bearing a medal of the Blessed Virgin and a leaden tablet bearing the inscription:
D. O. M.
Beatae Mariae Virginis
et sub titulo Assumptionis [118]
The bell was cast from the metal of a broken cannon used against the Iroquois and given some time previously by M. de Maisonneuve. It weighed a little less than 100 livres and the casting was paid for by M. Souart. [119]
The site chosen was still thought to be far from the town, but near enough for easy pilgrimages. In order to secure its perpetuity the sisters requested the bishop to make it an inseparable annex to the parish church, to be served by the parish clergy. To this the bishop of Quebec [120] acceded in the mandement of November 6, 1678. In addition he imposed upon the curé the duty of having mass celebrated there each Feast of the Visitation, the principal feast of the new order, and of going thither in procession every Assumption Day. These conditions still obtain. A Sulpician of Notre Dame Church today is known as the Chaplain of Notre Dame de Bon Secours, the first being M. Frémont.
The Church of Notre Dame de Bonsecours dates from three different periods. The first chapel was erected in 1657. It was built of oak and the foundations were in stone and it measured only forty feet in length by thirty feet in width. In the basement of this chapel a school was kept (the first in Montreal, in 1659) for the education of little children. This small chapel was replaced in 1676 by a stone building which measured seventy-five feet in length by forty feet in width. The latter was destroyed by fire with a part of the town in 1754. The present Church of Notre Dame de Bonsecours dates from 1772. It measures one hundred and twenty feet in length by forty-six feet in width. It was reconstructed in 1888.