St. Germain Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Rimouski (

Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

). It is the mother church for the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rimouski The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rimouski ( la, Archidioecesis Sancti Germani) is a Roman Catholic archdiocese that includes part of the Province of Quebec, Canada, and includes the suffragan dioceses of Baie-Comeau and Gaspé. As of 2018, ...

History

The church was raised to the status of cathedral on 15 January 1867 by

Jean Langevin Jean-Pierre-François-Laforce Langevin (22 September 1821 – 26 January 1892) was born and lived his life in Quebec. He was taught by a governess before entering the '' Petit Séminaire de Quebec''. He began his studies for the priesthood at t ...

, first bishop of Rimouski, and was consecrated on 28 May 1853. The cathedral was spared from the ''nuit rouge'' ("Red Night") on 6 May 1950, when nearly half of the town was burnt down by a fire that started at the Price Brothers Company sawmill. Legend has it that a priest sprinkled holy water around the city's cathedral and that the fire would not cross the line.

Design

The exterior of the cathedral is of neo-Gothic influence with pointed arch windows decorated with

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

, buttress and pinnacles while the interior is influenced by the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style with its ceiling that looks like a diagonal rib vault. Grey stones were used to build the outside. The main vault is 28 m (90 ft) high and the interior one is 18 m (60 ft) high. Three bells, weighing 1,641 kg in total were installed in 1891. The cathedral is famous for its Casavant Frères organ. Joseph J.B. Verret (architect) designed the Bishop's Palace (1901-01) for Monseigneur A.A. Blais, of St. Germain Roman Catholic Cathedral.

References

Bibliography: Musique et Musiciens
Retrieved 19 April 2008.

External links

*{{commonscatinline

Retrieved 19 April 2008. Buildings and structures in Rimouski 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Canada Basilica churches in Canada Roman Catholic cathedrals in Quebec Tourist attractions in Bas-Saint-Laurent