Chronicles
First episode
Saints in the streets...  
musée, collection, patrimoine, histoire, Nouvelle-France, culture

Photo : © Municipalité de Ange-Gardien (Montérégie)


During the time of New France, missionaries moved about to temporary sites, such as the chapel in the fort and the seigneur’s home, to serve the religious needs of the newly settled colonists. Following this, they started to keep registers of baptisms, marriages and burials and that’s how the parishes were gradually formed.

The creation of the apostolic vicariate of New France, in 1658, marked the beginning of the official organization of the Church in the territory. As the population grew, numerous parishes were erected by canon law which gave rise to the religious toponymy that characterizes Quebec.

Apostolic vicariate
Ecclesiastical territory in the process of Christianization founded in order to erect a diocese. Pope Alexandre VII appointed François de Laval to serve as apostolic vicar and he later became bishop when the diocese was created by Clement X in 1674.

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Erected by canon law
Action by which, in keeping with the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, the bishop creates a religious institution on a given territory.

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These names designate churches, parishes, schools, streets and villages and refer to the various devotions of the Roman Catholic faith: the members of Jesus’ family (St. Anne, St. Joseph); the apostles (St. Peter, St. Paul); the martyrs (St. Stephen, St. Lawrence); the evangelists (St. John, St. Luke); the mysteries of the faith (the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption); the angels, etc.

Devotions
Homage rendered to an individual or a sacred symbol during religious fervour.

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The devotion of the angels, which was present in the Jewish religion, became very popular among Roman Catholics with the dissemination of the Roman catechism, which was published in 1566. The guardian angels, the personal protectors of all believers, and three archangels (St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael), assumed an important place in religious iconography and prayer. As a result, places of worship and parishes adopted their names.

In Montreal, the names of the earliest parishes refer to the Holy Family, with the exception of the third, which was consecrated to the Holy Angels, indicating just how important this devotion was: Notre-Dame-de-Montréal (1678); Enfant-Jésus-de-Pointe-aux-Trembles (1674); Saints-Anges-de-Lachine (1676); Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rivière-des-Prairies (1687); Sainte-Anne-du-Bout-de-l’île (1703); Saint-Joachim-de-la-Pointe-Claire (1713), etc.

Elsewhere in the colony, several parishes were also founded and placed under the holy patronage of the angels: L’Ange-Gardien (Beaupré seigneurie, 1666); Saint-Michel (seigneuries of La Durantaye, 1698, Yamaska, 1727, and île Percée, 1776); Saint-Raphaël-Archange (Île-Bizard, 1844); Ange-Gardien (Rouville, 1851), etc.

In terms of territory, the names of some of these parishes correspond to current municipalities and recall the times of the pioneers and their descendents, when the Roman Catholic religion was at the heart of daily life, both public and private.

While the angels’ names may be familiar, do we really know what they mean?

We invite you to come back on March 16, 2010.

Sources

DESLANDRES, Dominique, John A. Dickinson and Ollivier Hubert, Les Sulpiciens de Montréal: une histoire de pouvoir et de discrétion, 1657-2007, [Montréal], Fides, 2007, 670 p.

ROBERT, Jean-Claude, Atlas historique de Montréal, [Montréal], Libre Expression, 1994, 167 p.

http://www.sts-anges.org/sanl_hist_orig.php

http://grandquebec.com/histoire/histoire-eglise-quebec/


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