{"id":14775,"date":"2012-06-26T08:02:08","date_gmt":"2012-06-26T12:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=14775"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:21:21","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:21:21","slug":"our-lady-of-the-harbour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/06\/26\/our-lady-of-the-harbour\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Lady of the Harbour"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
View of the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel and the Star of the Sea in 2006. Source: Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
View of the \u00a0Chapel in the first half of the 20th century. Source: Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

This article is a special collaboration with Hatty Liu.\u00a0Hatty enjoys to toddle around Montreal in search of interesting buildings and uses of public space, then going home to check if they have been written about in Spacing Montreal. It is her goal to write about them, if they have not.<\/em><\/p>\n

Last month I hosted a trio of friends from Toronto who turned out not to be tourists, but pilgrims, to Montreal. They came armed with a four-line excerpt of an immortal song and were determined to find its subject before the day closed:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the sun pours down like honey<\/em>
\nOn our lady of the harbour<\/em>
\nAnd she shows you where to look<\/em>
\nAmong the garbage and the flowers.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These lines were extracted from Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cSuzanne.\u201d The \u201clady of the harbour\u201d referred to the Star of the Sea, a statue of the Virgin Mary that crowns the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, known colloquially as the Sailor\u2019s Church. However, we did not learn of this until later, for none of the shopkeepers we surveyed in the Old Port that day knew who the elusive lady was.<\/p>\n

Their oversight is surprising. According to Patricia Simpson, director of research at the Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum, the chapel\u2019s current tenant, the place has been a community cornerstone for centuries. The original stone chapel, burned in 1754, was built to the east of city limits and \u201cit drew settlement this way,\u201d said Simpson. After Montreal was conquered by British forces, the chapel became a place of worship for the army garrisoned nearby. It was the first place where English-speaking Catholics in Montreal began to gather.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The chapel began to attract a specific kind of pilgrims in the 19th century, when the symbol of Star of the Sea also grew to acclaim. Standing at the forefront of the harbour, before the Saint Lawrence Seaway forced relocation of the harbour east in 1950s, the chapel became the \u201cSailor\u2019s Church\u201d where crew and passengers of ships recited last prayers before voyages, and where they gave thanks for a safe passage upon their return.<\/p>\n

The Star of the Sea was meant to cement the chapel\u2019s physical and spiritual connection to the sea. \u201cIt was the first thing people would see when they enter Montreal and the last thing they would see before they leave, blessing people as they entered and departed,\u201d said Simpson. The original wooden statue was erected in 1848, replacing a painting that had adorned the back of the chapel since the late 18th century. The current, larger statue was installed in 1893 as part of a series of renovations made to the chapel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The original statue of the Star of the Sea, installed in 1848, currently displayed in the Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum. Artist: Charles Dauphin. Source: Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Simpson is hard-pressed to say whether Leonard Cohen\u2019s song transformed the chapel\u2019s symbolic value yet again. My zealous friends aside, the staff of the tourism office nearby swore up and down that they had never heard anyone bring up the chapel\u2019s Cohen connection in the past few seasons. However, they cryptically added that \u201cpeople who do know about the connection go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson confirmed that Cohen acolytes periodically make pilgrimage to the museum, and tour guides will occasionally share the connection with groups. She added that the chapel remains a place for \u201cpilgrimages of various kinds\u2026it speaks to many different traditions. Everybody is looking for a meaning in life, and a lot of them come here.\u201d<\/p>\n

I found what I was looking for \u2013 a chance to learn about the lady. From the chapel\u2019s tower I saw her arms stretched over me, benevolent. The lilting strains of \u201cSuzanne\u201d that echoed in my head sounded oceanic. The view of the waterfront was nice, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 This article is a special collaboration with Hatty Liu.\u00a0Hatty enjoys to toddle around Montreal in search of interesting buildings and uses of public space, then going home to check if they have been written about in Spacing Montreal. It is her goal to write about them, if they have not. Last month I hostedContinue reading “Our Lady of the Harbour”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7832,7837,7839],"tags":[3813,147,320,7520,7524,7519,7522,14,2398,7518,125,7517,78,426,7521,7523,733,152],"class_list":["post-14775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-culture","category-history","category-neighbourhoods","tag-army","tag-art-culture","tag-artist","tag-charles-dauphin","tag-director-of-research","tag-harbour-and","tag-hatty-liu","tag-historical","tag-leonard-cohen","tag-marguerite-bourgeoys-museum","tag-montreal","tag-notre-dame-de-bon-secours-chapel","tag-old-montreal-vieux-montreal","tag-old-port","tag-patricia-simpson","tag-sailors-church","tag-the-star","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOur Lady of the Harbour - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2012\/06\/26\/our-lady-of-the-harbour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Lady of the Harbour - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 This article is a special collaboration with Hatty Liu.\u00a0Hatty enjoys to toddle around Montreal in search of interesting buildings and uses of public space, then going home to check if they have been written about in Spacing Montreal. 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