Saint-Alexis is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

located in

Quebec 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 ...

Lanaudière Lanaudière (, ) is one of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada, situated immediately to the northeast of Montreal. It has a total population (2016 Census) of 494,796 inhabitants, an increase of 4.9% over the 2011 census. Geogr ...

region, part of the

Montcalm Regional County Municipality Montcalm is a regional county municipality in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, Canada. Its seat is Sainte-Julienne. The population according to the 2021 Canadian Census was 58,680 Subdivisions There are 10 subdivisions within the RCM: ;Citi ...

. It was formed by the amalgamation on December 19, 2012, of the former village municipality and the former parish municipality of the same name. Saint-Alexis is generally considered one of the four municipalities of Nouvelle-Acadie. The name "Saint-Alexis" commemorates Canon Alexis-Frédéric Truteau (1808-1872). The latter was ordained in 1830 and occupied the post of Chancellor of the Bishop of Montreal, Mgr

Ignace Bourget Ignace Bourget (October 30, 1799 – June 8, 1885) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest who held the title of Bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876. Born in Lévis, Quebec, in 1799, Bourget entered the clergy at an early age, undertook several co ...

, during the creation of the canonical erection of the parish, in 1851. Truteau became famous during the “

Guibord case ''Brown v Les Curé et Marguilliers de l'Œuvre et Fabrique de Notre Dame de Montréal'', better known as the ''Guibord case'', was a decision in 1874 by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in an early Canadian legal dispute over the rela ...

”, when he refused Christian burial to Joseph Guibord following a Roman decree obtained by the bishop condemning the

Canadian Institute The Royal Canadian Institute for Science (RCIScience), known also as the Royal Canadian Institute, is a Canadian nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting the public with Canadian science. History The organization was formed in Toronto as t ...

History

The parish of Saint-Alexis was created on July 1, 1855, after the dissolution of the county of Leinster (witch covered the territory approximately equivalent to the RCMs of Montcalm, Les Moulins and L'Assomption) in the highlands of the plain of Saint -Laurent, about twenty kilometres north of Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan, in the Lanaudière region. The chosen name, Saint-Alexis, also attributed to the post office established in 1855, which took the name of "Saint-Alexis-de-Montcalm" in 1876, pays homage to Canon Alexis-Frédéric Truteau (1808-1872). The latter, ordained in 1830 by Monsignor Jean-Jacques Lartigue, served as Chancellor of Monsignor

from 1847 to 1872, and he set the boundaries of the parish in 1852. Nicknamed the good Father Truteau, he became famous in because of his role in the Guibord affair. He refused, in fact, the Christian burial of Joseph Guibord, dit Archambault (1809-1869) because of a Roman decree obtained by Monsignor Bourget against the

to which Guibord belonged. A decision by Judge Mondelet in 1870 forced Father Rousselot and the churchwardens of Notre-Dame-de-la-Montréal as well as Canon Truteau to reconsider their decision and allow the transfer of Guibord's remains to the Catholic cemetery of the

Côte-des-Neiges Côte-des-Neiges (, ) is a neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at the geographic centre of the Island of Montreal on the western slope of Mount Royal and is part of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Cô ...

Acadians The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the ...

settled on the territory around 1795, coming from L'Assomption, through a large number of small hills. In 1920 the village part of Saint-Alexis split from the parish to form its own municipal entity. On December 19, 2012, the parish municipality of Saint-Alexis and the village municipality of Saint-Alexis remerged to become the municipality of Saint-Alexis. Nowadays, magnificent maple groves make Saint-Alexis famous. The municipality forms, with the neighbouring municipalities of

Saint-Jacques Saint-Jacques (the French name for Saint James (disambiguation), Saint James) may refer to: Canada * Saint-Jacques Cathedral (Montreal), built in 1822 and demolished in 1973 * Saint-Jacques (electoral district), a former federal electoral distric ...

, Sainte-Marie-Salomé and Saint-Liguori, the region of New Acadie, where many Acadians settled in the 18th century in the aftermath of the

expulsion of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians (french: Le Grand Dérangement or ), was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian peo ...

. The Acadian Festival of New Acadie is celebrated there every year.

Geography

The village is crossed by Route 158 between the municipalities of

on the east and Saint-Esprit on the west. Saint-Alexis is 20.7 km from Saint-Lin-Laurentides and 27.3 km from

Mascouche Mascouche () is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southern Quebec, Canada. The city is located on the Mascouche River within the Les Moulins Regional County Municipality and has a population of 51,183, ranking 20th among Quebec municipaliti ...

. The Saint-Alexis is located on the upper St. Lawrence plain. The area is known for the fertility of its soil, which is especially suited to market gardening and grain crops. The forested areas consist almost entirely of maple, making this the perfect place to shop for maple-based products. the two major roads are called Grande-Ligne and Petite-Ligne and houses a number of ancestral homes that were built facing south, a local characteristic. These houses reflect a heritage that is typical of Lanaudière.

Demographics

Population trend

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 554 (total dwellings: 581)

Mother tongue

* English as first language: 1.5% * French as first language: 96% * English and French as first language: 0.7% * Other as first language: 1.5%

Economy

Saint-Alexis is a predominantly

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

town, where large

cereal A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more foo ...

and

market garden A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to som ...

ing farms are located, which represents approximately 92% of its territory. There are also farms producing

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved ...

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quail ...

and

maple syrup Maple syrup is a syrup made from the sap of maple trees. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Maple t ...

production accompanied by its commercial

sugar shack A sugar shack (french: cabane à sucre), also known as sap house, sugar house, sugar shanty or sugar cabin is a commercial establishment, primarily found in Eastern Canada and northern New England. Sugar shacks are small cabins or groups of cab ...

Education

Commission scolaire des Samares operates francophone public schools, including: * École Notre-Dame The

Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board (SWLSB, french: Commission scolaire Sir-Wilfrid-Laurier, CSSWL) is a school board headquartered in Rosemère, Quebec in Greater Montreal. It officially came into existence in July 1998 when English-language sc ...

operates anglophone public schools, including: * Joliette Elementary School in Saint-Charles-Borromée * Joliette High School in

Joliette Joliette is a city in southwest Quebec, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Montreal, on the L'Assomption River and is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Joliette. It is considered to be a part of the North Shore of Greater ...

Joliette High School Zone Sec 1-5
"

. Retrieved on September 5, 2017.

References

{{authority control Incorporated places in Lanaudière Municipalities in Quebec