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The inside of St. Patrick's Parish in Ottawa, Ont., notable for its unique English Gothic style design.
Photo courtesy St. Patrick's Basilica
August 21, 2025
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Photo courtesy Holy Family Parish, Whitby
The Archdiocese of Ottawa-Corwall is hosting tours of two of its oldest and most historic places of worship, marking a highlight in this year’s Pilgrims of Hope Jubilee Year celebrations in the nation’s capital.
Billed as an archdiocesan historic church tour, parishioners from across the Ottawa-Cornwall area are invited to rediscover the historic significance and beauty of St-François-d’Assise and St. Patrick’s Basilica in the two-part tour on Aug. 23.
Coinciding with the ongoing Jubilee Year, the tours are an opportunity for spiritual renewal and pilgrimage that embody the archdiocese’s rich, long-standing history and spiritual legacy.
As explained by tour guide and coordinator Tate Pumfrey, the historic church tour stems from his own vested interest in the sacred sites and a collaboration with the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Corwall.
“I have been coordinating these tours, some of them I've given myself, and others were given by parishioners at particular churches. I organized two tours like this last year just for fun because I like old churches and want to share their beauty with people,” he said. “The archdiocese caught wind of these tours, and so I was offered a job to organize tours similar to what I had originally organized but as an archdiocesan event for the Jubilee Year.
“ I've been very happy to have this opportunity to work with the archdiocese and share, in a bigger way, the treasures of the faith through these old churches.”
This summer, similar tours at Holy Name of Mary in Almonte, St. Peter Celestine in Pakenham, Paroisse Très Sainte Trinité in Rockland, St. Andrews in St. Andrew’s West and St. Finnan's Basilica in Alexandria took place, connecting local Catholics with their faith across each sacred space.
Aside from being a part-time tour guide, Pumfrey’s day job is as a pipe organ technician. An organist himself, previous tours have featured pipe organ demonstrations, with St-François, Ottawa’s largest church, set to follow through a 1886-1988 pipe organ display by organist-composer and tour guide Gilles Maurice Leclerc.
“The hope was that young people on these tours would have an opportunity to try the organ, building that interest and familiarizing people with it. Many modern churches don't have an organ, so it’s also an opportunity for people to hear the different colours and sounds available and grow a deeper appreciation of the king of instruments,” he said.
Apart from the musical demonstration, attendees will also learn more about St-François. Built in 1915, the massive church is known for its Québécois vernacular architectural style, borrowing Romanesque and Baroque influences, as well as for its statuary, both cementing the church’s role as something of a French-Canadian Catholic and cultural anchor.
The tour will then travel uptown to explore St. Patrick’s Basilica. The parish was established in 1855 and the church built in 1875. The neo-Gothic style church was the first to serve the Anglophone community in Ottawa and was elevated to the status of minor basilica in 1995 by Pope John Paul II.
“ (St. Patrick’s) is one of the finest examples of an English Gothic style, which I find really interesting as a lot of the more Gothic churches tend to draw more on the French style. I think it's one of the most beautiful churches in English Canada, and the stained glass there is especially impressive,” Pumfrey said.
The archdiocese intends to run a final tour of the Oratoire Soeurs de la Charité d'Ottawa, as well as the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica, on Sept. 14.
Regardless of the individual historic church, Pumfrey and the archdiocese hopes those taking the tour, in the nature of the Jubilee year, will join together in pilgrimage, music and the lasting beauty of the city's historic churches.
“ I hope for not only a deeper appreciation of the history, but also a deeper theological appreciation as well. This is a chance to ground ourselves in our faith and in our buildings once again, reclaiming that sense of pride in our faith and in our heritage,” Pumfrey said.
For more, see https://ottawacornwall.ca/events/jubilee-year-4th-archdiocesan-historic-church-tour/?occurrence=2025-08-23.
A version of this story appeared in the August 24, 2025, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "Ottawa tour taps into Jubilee spirit".
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