We motored on to the Acadian Museum at Bonaventure. This museum brings alive the Acadian heritage, in which the church played a major role. On display are magnificent examples of church vestments, a beautiful three-tiered altar and a tabernacle.
Driving along just northeast of Maria, we discovered Kateri Tekakwitha Church. It’s so striking — built in the shape of a teepee with an impressive statue of its patron in front. This is the mission church of the Gesgapegiag Reserve.
We stopped near the town of Gaspe itself. We explored the Jacques Cartier National Historic Site where he had placed a cross upon landing in 1534. A new one was erected in 1934 to commemorate his arrival and the area’s label as “the cradle of Canada.” The Gaspesie Museum here gives details of the occasion.
Our final stop was at the nearby village of Pointe-Navarre, where we visited Notre-Dame-de-Pointe-Navarre, the only shrine dedicated to Mary on the peninsula. A beautiful memorial chapel here is the resting place of the shrine’s founder, Fr. Jean-Marie Watier, a member of the Servite order. He was so special to the residents here, known for his healing ministry to the sick. The crutches and braces in the chapel were from pilgrims who had been cured of their diseases. Fr. Watier also healed friction between this parish and St-Majorique across the river. “He would canoe across to say Mass at both churches, because there was no bridge until the 1940s,” the parish elders told us. The shrine, with no permanent pastor at present, depends on tourists and pilgrims to maintain it.
A touching statue of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows stands outside the church, where Tuesday Masses are dedicated to St. Peregrine, patron of cancer patients. The grounds are vast, with several devotional sites — Stations of the Cross including a replica of Calvary, the Pieta, a Lourdes grotto and special sections to St. Joseph, Blessed Kateri and St. Michael. It is a beautiful place, and one which we reluctantly left, so peaceful was the atmosphere and so hospitable the parish members.
We saw several other signs of Catholic devotion in Quebec’s maritime region. Hopefully, it will always be an intrinsic component of the beauty and hospitality travellers encounter.
For information, contact www.quebecmaritime.ca or www.tourisme-gaspesie.com or call 1-800-463-0323.
Capturing the Catholic spirit of Quebec’s maritime region
By Lorraine Williams, Catholic Register Special
{mosimage}GASPE, Que. - Nothing prepared me for the incredible variety of Catholic churches to be found in the maritime region of Quebec.
Turning south on 132 after visiting Miguasha Park, we drove to where the highway meets Chaleur Bay. In Carleton, a sign pointed to Mont St-Joseph. We drove along a trail which wound up high in the heavens, 555 metres to be exact. We were barely able to discern the mission’s outline in the thick fog. The site was founded by Carleton’s St.-Jean-Baptiste Society in 1878 when it erected a cedar cross, covered in white iron, to protect parishioners and save them from the sea’s dangers. That cross stood until 1918. That year, the statue of St. Joseph was taken in procession from the parish church up a rough trail. In 1935, inspired by Carleton’s parish priest, Abbe Plourde, the construction of a chapel began. Once completed, it became a popular pilgrimage site, due in great part to the Sisters of Charity who had a convent and school in Carleton. Pilgrims come here to pray in the beautiful oratory of the Blessed Virgin. There’s a museum and art gallery here, including an unusual crèche scene in which The Star of Bethlehem is a sea anemone and Baby Jesus rests on a mushroom.
Turning south on 132 after visiting Miguasha Park, we drove to where the highway meets Chaleur Bay. In Carleton, a sign pointed to Mont St-Joseph. We drove along a trail which wound up high in the heavens, 555 metres to be exact. We were barely able to discern the mission’s outline in the thick fog. The site was founded by Carleton’s St.-Jean-Baptiste Society in 1878 when it erected a cedar cross, covered in white iron, to protect parishioners and save them from the sea’s dangers. That cross stood until 1918. That year, the statue of St. Joseph was taken in procession from the parish church up a rough trail. In 1935, inspired by Carleton’s parish priest, Abbe Plourde, the construction of a chapel began. Once completed, it became a popular pilgrimage site, due in great part to the Sisters of Charity who had a convent and school in Carleton. Pilgrims come here to pray in the beautiful oratory of the Blessed Virgin. There’s a museum and art gallery here, including an unusual crèche scene in which The Star of Bethlehem is a sea anemone and Baby Jesus rests on a mushroom.
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