Our Lady of the Cape
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Our Lady of the Cape (Notre-Dame-du-Cap in French) is a title given to Mary the Mother of God in
Cap-de-la-Madeleine Cap-de-la-Madeleine is a former city in Quebec, Canada at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River and the St. Lawrence River. It was amalgamated into the City of Trois-Rivières in 2002. Population (2006 census) 33,022. History Cap-de-la-M ...
, Quebec Canada. The title refers specifically to a statue of the Blessed Mother which is currently located in the Old Shrine.
Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
granted the venerated image its
canonical coronation A canonical coronation ( la, Coronatio Canonica) is a pious institutional act of the pope, duly expressed in a bull, in which the pope bestows the right to impose an ornamental crown, a diadem or an aureole to an image of Christ, Mary or Josep ...
on 12 October 1904 while
Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
sent another ceremonial coronation on 15 August 1954.


History

Deep
Marian Devotion Marian devotions are external pious practices directed to the person of Mary, mother of God, by members of certain Christian traditions. They are performed in Catholicism, High Church Lutheranism, Anglo-Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Orien ...
existed in Cap-de-la-Madeleine since 1694 with the institution of the Brotherhood of the Rosary under Father Paul Vachon. In 1720, Father Vachon built a small fieldstone church to replace an earlier wooden structure. Father Vachon died in 1729, and was buried in the church. Without a resident pastor, the parish fell into decline. It was not until 1845 that the Bishop appointed Fr. Leandre Tourigny to be the settlement's resident priest. In 1867, devotion to Mary was revived under Father Luc Desilets. After he had been deeply disappointed seeing a pig from nearby farms inside the church chewing a rosary left by some pilgrim, Fr. Desilets vowed to consecrate himself to the Blessed Virgin and re-introduce the rosary devotion to his parishioners."Historical Summary", Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-du-Cap
/ref>


Description

In 1854, parishioner, Zepherin Dorval was heading for the gold fields and in hope of the protection of the Blessed Virgin, donated a statue which depicts Mary as she is said to have appeared to Catherine Laboure in Paris in 1830. The statue represents Our Lady standing, in an attitude reminiscent of that of the Miraculous Medal. The eyes are modestly downcast; the facial expression pleasant. Her head is covered with a white veil; her garments gilded and ornamented. Her bare feet crush the serpent coiled on the top of a star-studded globe. The statue was originally placed in an alcove containing the altar of the Confraternities of the Holy Rosary, before being re-located to above the main altar.


The Miracle of the Ice Bridge

During Fr. Desilets' revival of Marian devotion the number of people attending the parish church began to increase until the church was no longer large enough to hold the parishioners. In 1878 it was decided that a larger church was needed and that it would be built with stones from the opposite side of the
St. 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, connecting ...
which is approximately miles across at Cap-de-la-Madeleine. The decision was made to bring the stones across the river on sleds once it had frozen in the winter. Unfortunately the 1878-1879 winter was unusually mild and the St. Lawrence did not freeze over as planned. This seemed to hinder plans for construction of the new church. Fr. Desilets instructed his congregation to pray the rosary in order to obtain ice to cross the river, he also promised Mary that if she interceded he would dedicate the Old Church (then dedicated to
Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...
) to her instead. In March 1879 pieces of ice floated downstream from Lake St-Pierre, forming a "bridge" across the St. Lawrence River, and this miracle was attributed to the
intercession Intercession or intercessory prayer is the act of praying to a deity on behalf of others, or Intercession of saints, asking a saint in heaven to pray on behalf of oneself or for others. The Apostle Paul's exhortation to Saint Timothy, Timothy sp ...
of the Blessed Mother. This bridge was called the
Rosary The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...
Bridge due to its connection with the prayer of the same name. For several days the parishioners poured water on the ice pieces in order to thicken the ice and form a path, which they then used to transport the stones across the river. Fr. Desilets upheld his promise and renamed the old church. On June 22, 1888, the old stone church was formally dedicated to Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Dorval's statue ceremoniously relocated from the alcove to above the altar. That evening, while praying in the small church, Father Desilets, Franciscan friar Father
Frédéric Janssoone Frédéric Janssoone, O.F.M., (also known as the Blessed Frédéric of Ghyvelde or Frédéric of Saint-Yves) (19 November 1838, Ghyvelde, France — 4 August 1916, Montreal, Canada) was a French-born Franciscan friar and Catholic priest who worke ...
O.F.M, and a parishioner, Pierre Lacroix, all seemed to see the statue open its eyes. This impression continued for five or ten minutes while the two priests moved about the church to view the statue from different perspective to test whether this was an optical illusion.Murphy, Thomas. ''Welcome to Notre-Dame'', 1963
/ref> When word circulated of this unusual occurrence, the incidents of pilgrimages increased. Beginning in 1892, there were reports of cures.


Pilgrimages

In 1904,
Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
authorized a
canonical coronation A canonical coronation ( la, Coronatio Canonica) is a pious institutional act of the pope, duly expressed in a bull, in which the pope bestows the right to impose an ornamental crown, a diadem or an aureole to an image of Christ, Mary or Josep ...
for the statue, which was carried out by Bishop François-Xavier Cloutier. The "shamrock-girdled crown" was provided by the Irish community of Montreal. The image received a second coronation in August 1954 by Cardinal
Valerio Valeri Valerio Valeri (7 November 1883 – 22 July 1963) was an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious in the Roman Curia from 1953 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate ...
, representing
Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
.
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
stopped there in 1984, during a visit to Quebec. This inaugurated a tradition of annual pilgrimages for young people, known as Cap-Jeunesse.Couvrette, Sebastian. "The pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Cape Shrine, Quebec", ''Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America''
/ref> There are many pilgrimages to the shrine, including hundreds by bus from Canada and the United States. At the end of July, members of the Quebec Italian community, stop at the basilica en route to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré for the feast of St Anne on July 26. The Marie Reine de la Paix pilgrims converge every year from several points in Quebec, arriving on August 15, the
Feast of the Assumption The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...
. Some travel on foot the 150 km from Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. Celebrations include torchlight processions and masses and hymns in creole for pilgrims from the Haitian community. Participants in the Marie Reine Canada pilgrimage, established in 2003, travel 100 km on foot in three days from St.-Joseph-de-Lanoraie (
Lanoraie, Quebec Lanoraie is a town in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, Canada, part of the D'Autray Regional County Municipality. History When Jacques Cartier passed through in the 16th century, the Iroquois had already established themselves in the area, cal ...
), through Maskinongé and
Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...
, every
Labour Day Labour Day ('' Labor Day'' in the United States) is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for ...
weekend.Marie Reine du Canada
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References


External links


Our Lady of the Cape Shrine
- official site {{coord, 46, 22, 5, N, 72, 29, 51, W, type:landmark_region:CA-QC, display=title Buildings and structures in Trois-Rivières Tourist attractions in Mauricie Religious buildings and structures in Quebec Roman Catholic shrines