Bonus Blog: Marti’s Montreal Memoirs - Post M1

Every forgotten raincoat has a silver lining…

I took off for a hike in the cemetery last Thursday.  That would be the HUGE Notre Dame Cemetery on Mount Royal. Today's history lesson:

The Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery was founded in 1854, is over 340 acres and is the largest cemetery in Canada (3rd largest in North America) with more than 55 kilometeres of lanes and one million people interred. The Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery site has over 65,000 monuments and 71 family vaults.

Do you understand now when I say HUGE!! And that's just the Notre-Dame des-Neiges Cemetery, which is primarily a French-Canadian Catholic cemetery.  There is also the adjacent Mount Royal Cemetery which adds another 165 aces with over 162,000 interments, which is primarily English-speaking Protestants.

But I get ahead of myself as I never actually made it to Mount Royal for my day long outing.....I forgot to look at the weather forecast.  The sun was shining and I had my backpack loaded with my camera - check; water bottle - check; map - check; bus/Metro pass - check; money - check; sunscreen - check; phone - check; apple - check; granola bar - check; raincoat...nah; umbrella ....ha!

I got on the bus and did what everyone does - plugged myself into my iPod.  45 minutes later I was riding the Metro subway system. I popped out of the ground like a gopher at Metro station nearest Mount Royal to find the sun had been overtaken by a rather nasty storm front while I was underground.  I reached for my phone to text Tom to ask him to check the radar for me, but just as I found it in my loaded back pack, it 'ding-donged' with an incoming message alert....it was Tom asking, "Did you remember your new $$$ raincoat?  Raining hard here".  My reply was simply, "Ahh...The sun was shining when I left!"  I could hear him roll his eyeballs......

As I saw very dark clouds approaching and heard thunder, I decided not to walk the half mile to the cemetery...I needed Plan B.  And then I saw it.  It's hard to miss St Joseph's Oratory, so when I caught sight of it in the looming clouds, I headed that way.  Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, (French: Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal), is a "Roman Catholic minor basilica", but it looked rather 'major' to me. It's Canada's largest church (capacity over 10,000 and 2,400 of those get to sit!) and the dome is the third-largest of its kind in the world after the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.  Pretty major company!

A lot of other people without raincoats were scampering to Saint Joseph's, so my new best friends and I started the self-guided tour in the 1st level 'Votive Chapel'.  The first impression is of the warmth and the smell of 10,000 votive candles.  It instantly makes you slow down (not easy for me) and take it all in.  In addition to the candles and the many statues, is the tomb of Brother Andre (Saint Andre Bessette).  Brother Andre built the first chapel in 1904, but the congregation quickly outgrew that space. There were several expansions; 1908 and again in 1910.  But they needed something bigger for the ever growing congregation, so began the construction of the basilica.  The basilica is dedicated to Saint Joseph, to whom Brother André credited all his reported miracles. These were mostly related to some kind of healing power, and many pilgrims (handicapped, blind, ill, etc.) poured into his Basilica, including numerous Protestants. On display in the Votive Chapel is a wall covered with thousands of crutches from those who came to the basilica and were allegedly healed. Pope John Paul II deemed the miracles to be authentic and beatified Brother André in 1982. In October 2010 Pope Benedict XVI canonized the saint.

The sanctuary of the basilica has an art deco feel - very different from the Notre Dame Basilica in Old Montreal.  I attached a few pictures, but my photography doesn't do justice.  I walked around and took pictures, I sat and read, I sat and meditated, I sat and prayed.

Meanwhile, it was still raining hard.  I went to an observation deck and watched the rain and wind in the treetops.  There was a lady there who was obviously not from Nebraska...."Look at that tree blowing!  I think it's a tornado!".....not even close.

I had read all the English displays and decided to make a break for the Basilica Cafe and Gift Shop across the parking lot.  Being a good duck, I didn't mind getting a little wet.  I enjoyed a cup of soupe poulet et nouilles (sounds better in French) and waited out the storm.  About the time I finished the soup, the clouds cleared and the sun returned.  As I walked around the outside of the basilica, I noticed a trail tucked in the woods, up the hill. There were only a few other people hiking this trail as it was steep.  I followed it to find a fantastic trail with the 12 Stations of the Cross - all with larger than life stone sculptures. It was beautiful...and offered a beautiful view of the west side of Montreal.....I half expected to see a rainbow

When I was finished, I walked down, down, down the stairs to the entrance garden and noticed the statue of Joseph holding an infant Jesus.  The inscription said, ITE AD JOSEPH.  As all you Latin buffs know, that means 'Go to Joseph'......good idea on a stormy day!

It was time to go, but first I found a wonderful bakery (I may never bake bread while I'm here - they do it so well!) and then stopped at an outdoor market for fresh produce.  I loaded up my shopping bags and went back into the gopher hole to head home.....

Every forgotten raincoat has a silver lining.

Posted with permission from Marti Franti