MONTREAL: A WALK IN THE PARK AND SAINT JOSEPH'S ORATORY

After finishing up at Premiere Moisson Bakery (see last post), it was obvious that we needed to work off some calories.  The next place we wanted to see was St. Joseph's Oratory, and we knew it was somewhere on nearby Mount Royal, so we decided to just walk to it.  How far could it be? There was a bit of interesting scenery on the way:

I don't get it.  Any ideas?

Our "little walk" turned out to be a mountain climb.  We found the mountain, which isn't hard to miss since it is the only real piece of elevation in Montreal.  We started up and found out it was just a bit bigger than anticipated.

The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York's Central Park. He must have really liked BIG parks. Unlike Central Park's flat terrain, however, this park just keeps going up.  In some places it was so steep that it required staircases:

However, the view from the top was well worth the hike:

The day had started out cold and drizzly, so we hauled out the rain jackets.  Big mistake.

A couple of hours later and on the opposite side of the mountain from where we started, we finally found St. Joseph's Oratory. Completed in 1967, it is the largest church in Canada and has the third largest dome of its kind in the world behind one in the Ivory Coast and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. See those steps in the middle that are kind of green? They are roped off and reserved for penitents who climb them on their knees. We saw a man doing this while we were there, and he stopped to cross himself on each step:

St. Joseph's Oratory, Montreal. There are exactly 100 steps.

Remember how Notre Dame in Montreal reminded me of Notre Dame in Paris? Well, St. Joseph's reminded me of another famous Parisian cathedral: Sacre Coeur:

Sacre Coeur, Paris

I loved the stylized name of St. Joseph on the front:

In fact, I loved that this church was dedicated to Joseph, that oft forgotten part of the nativity:

Yes, once we got to the top of that long staircase, there were even MORE stairs that took us to the small chapel behind the main one. We definitely did our fair share of stairs:

There we found a sweet tribute to Joseph and his many roles, each one a prayer station for those with particular needs:

Sprinkled among the stations were walls of canes and crutches that once belonged to those who were healed through St. Joseph's intercession:

One of about ten such stockpiles

The construction of this building was largely due to one man, Andre Bessette, a Catholic priest who was eventually beatified (1982) and then canonized as a saint just last year.  His heart is in the reliquary (yes, his actual heart), placed there on his request as a protection for the oratory. This isn't a very good picture of the heart, but you can at least see how it is displayed:

We finally made our way into the main structure, which was interesting but not necessarily my favorite cathedral-type building:

However, I did love the bright, modern, downright cheerful stained glass windows:

The sun hit them just right to shine through and create this doppelganger on the wall:

My favorite part of the Oratory, and the reason I would come back for another visit, was the series of bas-reliefs depicting the crucifixion of Christ that were sprinkled about the nave on freestanding walls.  If I had to choose two words to describe the artist's attitude, I would choose "tender" and "quiet."  There was a delicate softness to these sculptures that truly moved me, and I loved that Christ was so often depicted with others, particularly with women, instead of as a solitary sufferer. Judge for yourself:

Worth a visit, don't you think?

MONTREAL: NOTRE DAME BASILICA AND A SUGAR HIGH

I've never really considered Canada a foreign country, not like Germany or Japan or even England.  Unlike Mexico, we share a common language (well, except for that "aboot the hoose" stuff) and a common culture.  Until last month I had only been in Vancouver on the west end and Niagara Falls on the east end, but the rest of the country is like Vancouver and Niagara, right?

Wrong.  Quebec is definitely a foreign country.

Tourists, even American ones, do have to show their passports at the border now, but the border crossing looked pretty non-threatening compared to some of the passport control booths we've had to get through:

However, right away we noticed that they don't use the Queen's English on their signs, including on their stop signs:

In our travels, we've been surprised by how many countries use the word "stop" rather than the foreign equivalent.

Then there was this fellow, standing in the Place d'Armes Square. He definitely looks like he is related to the Three Musketeers:

Paul Chomeday de Maissonnueve, Founder of Montreal

And wait . . . isn't that Notre Dame Basilica identical to the one in PARIS, FRANCE?

Notre Dame, Montreal

Well, maybe not quite.  Someone chopped off the tops of the towers in Paris and added a few embellishments:

Notre Dame, Paris

Montreal's Basilica is quite impressive, and just a bit creepy, especially on a rather Gothic-y weather day:

When it was completed in 1843, this was the largest church in all of North America.

Did someone bonk Mary on the head?  It looks like she is seeing stars.

We were laughing and joking and ooh-ing and ah-ing, and then we went inside, and suddenly we could hardly breathe.

WOW.

You know how they backlight the organ pipes in the Tabernacle in Temple Square?  Well, this is kind of like that . . .

. . . only a thousand times more stunning.

The main room is rather dark, or it least it was on the rainy day we visited, and the blue-painted ceilings and blue lighting give the interior an eerie, almost surreal atmosphere.  It has to be the most unique use of color in a cathedral interior that I've ever seen. (By the way, this is where Quebecean icon Celine Dion married Rene Angelil in 1994.)

It's not only the main altar that is so sublime.  There are colors and patterns everywhere.

We loved the unique stained-glass windows that portrayed scenes from Canadian history rather than more traditional scenes from the life of Christ.

The art was also unusual, much of it, like the windows, depicting Montreal's history, both religious and secular. Here is just a small sampling:

Of course, there were plenty of traditional statues of Christ, carved from the warm woods of Canadian forests rather than the cold marble of Italian quarries:

I especially loved this Ezekiel and Jeremiah,:

. . . and the figures on the ends of the pews, examples of how to worship:

 

Remember this spiral staircase.  I'll come back to it later:

Because of the monstrous size of the cathedral, it was decided that a smaller, more intimate chapel was needed, and the Chapel of the Sacred Heart was completed just behind Notre Dame in 1888. Tragically, it was destroyed by arson in 1978, but it was quickly rebuilt in a slightly more modern style

The Chapel is accessed from behind the main altar, and a passageway provides a nice, quick transition from the dark glowing blue of the Basilica to a much brighter light:

 

However, the *gasp* reflex again comes into play upon entering the chapel, which is bathed in yellow light dominated by this equally unique altarpiece:

There are several style elements that provide a bridge to the main basilica, such as the use of this softer version of the blue background:

 . . . and the rich wood used for the statues of Christ:

 . . . and (here it is!) the intricately-carved spiral staircase:

 I love this Neo-Gothic confessional.  I'm glad there wasn't a priest around.  If there had been, I may not have been able to resist popping in there to confess just for the experience of it.

The chapel was full of people, cameras, and film crews who were preparing some advertising for a Christmas music special later in the year (and yes, that IS a Christmas tree):

Here is the guy from the top row of the poster above being interviewed:

Well, when we were done in there, our energy had been completely sapped and we needed a caloric infusion to get us through the rest of the day.  What could we do but search out the bakery recommended to us by our friends the Eastmonds?

Oh yeah, it was worth the subway ride AND the walk.  We ate a couple of delicious paninis and several wonderful salads, but THIS decidedly FOREIGN FOOD is what I really came for:

 I'll take one of each, please.

READING

While not technically set in Montreal, the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny is set on the Canadian side of the US/Quebec border. A friend introduced me to the books via Still Life, the first in the series, and I loved it so much that I can't wait to read the next nine books. The characters are well-developed and remind me of people I know. The plot is full of interesting, unpredictable twists and is intelligent (i.e., the murderer doesn't turn out to be someone who shows up at the last minute, or a character who suddenly develops all the attributes of a murderer). Chief Inspector Gamache is someone I think I'd like to know. What more could a reader ask?

Next up: Even BETTER than Notre Dame Basilica--Saint Joseph's Oratory