We noticed that many Chinese seem to have difficulty "surviving" without Chinese food for too long a period. Since the bulk of our tour group members were Chinese, it was natural that almost all meals arranged by the tour company were Chinese food. So before our last stop at the St. Joseph Oratory on 5 September, we had our dinner at a local Chinese restaurant not far from it.
By the time we walked to St. Joseph Oratory from the restaurant, it was 7.00pm and already nightfall. This Oratory was made famous by one man called Brother Andre Bessette, one of the most revered religious figures in all of Quebec. He first built a small chapel in 1904 on the hill slope of Mount Royal. He was a saintly man and was known for his healing powers through his devotion to St. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. Soon after, the chapel was too small to accommodate all the people and a bigger one for 1,000-seating was built in 1917. Then in 1924, the construction of the Basilica started and finally completed in 1967. Both Catholics and Protestants made their pilgrimage to the chapel and later on the Basilica to rid themselves of their sicknesses. On display is a wall hung with thousands of crutches, canes and braces left behind by these pilgrims as "proof" of being healed. The Votive Chapel was added between 1946 and 1949 to house these massive amount of crutches.
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| St. Joseph Oratory: Downloaded from website. |
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| A statute of Brother Andre Besettee. |
The Chancel
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| Church Organ. |
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| Frontage at Nightfall. |
To see the authenticity of the story of the crutches left behind, I searched the website and found this postcard .
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