Sainte-Félicité is a municipality in

La Matanie Regional County Municipality La Matanie is a regional county municipality, located in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, in Canada. From January 1, 1982 to March 9, 2013, it was known as Matane. The county seat is the city of Matane. Subdivisions There are 12 subdiv ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the 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 one of the thirtee ...

, Canada, located on the south shore of the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

. It is named after

Felicitas of Rome Felicitas of Rome (c. 101 – 165), also anglicized as is a saint numbered among the Christian martyrs. Apart from her name, the only thing known for certain about this martyr is that she was buried in the Cemetery of Maximus, on the Via Sal ...

, a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

ed saint. Its economy is based on fishing and agriculture. Notable people who came from Sainte-Félicité include Québécois pop singer

Isabelle Boulay Isabelle Boulay, (born 6 July 1972) is a French Canadian singer. Biography Born in Sainte-Félicité, Quebec, where her parents owned a restaurant, Boulay moved to the nearby city of Matane at the start of her adolescence, and studied litera ...

, who was born there in 1972. In addition to Sainte-Félicité itself, the municipality also includes the communities of Cap-à-la-Baleine, L'Anse-à-la-Croix, Le Grand-Deuxième, Le Petit-Deuxième, and Sainte-Félicité-Ouest.

History

According to recent studies, Cap à la Baleine (Cape Whale) was how far

Jacques Cartier Jacques Cartier ( , also , , ; br, Jakez Karter; 31 December 14911 September 1557) was a French-Breton maritime explorer for France. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of th ...

sailed up the Saint Lawrence in 1534. It was also an area with many shipwrecks, earning it the name Pointe-au-Massacre (Massacre Point), sometimes pluralized as Pointe-aux-Massacres. While Saint-Denis, the name of the geographic township, was used concurrently, the macabre name remained in use until the mid 19th century and was the inspiration for the current name, because Bishop

Charles-François Baillargeon Charles-François Baillargeon (April 26, 1798 – October 13, 1870) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest and archbishop. Biography He was from Lower Canada and studied at the Collège de Saint-Pierre-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud and Collège de Nico ...

wrote "''je change le Massacre en Félicité''" ("I change the massacre to happiness") in 1860. In 1857, a mission was established. In 1864, the post office opened under the name Sainte-Félicité. In 1866, the place was incorporated as the Township Municipality of Saint-Denis, but two years later changed its name and status to Parish Municipality of Sainte-Félicité. In 1955, the main settlement separated from the parish municipality and was incorporated as the Village Municipality of Sainte-Félicité. On January 10, 1996, the current Municipality of Sainte-Félicité was formed when the Village Municipality and Parish Municipality were rejoined together again.

Demographics

Population

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sainte-Felicite, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Quebec Designated places in Quebec Municipalities in Quebec Incorporated places in Bas-Saint-Laurent

History

Demographics

Population

See also

References