The Cathedral of St. Hyacinth the Confessor (), located in

Saint-Hyacinthe Saint-Hyacinthe ( , ) is a city in southwestern Quebec east of Montreal on the Yamaska River. The population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 57,239. The city is located in Les Maskoutains Regional County Municipality of the Montérégie regi ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, is the

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe is a Latin Church, Latin rite suffragan of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sherbrooke, Archdiocese of Sherbrooke in Quebec, (predominantly francophone) Canada. Its cathedral episcopal ...

. The cathedral church, named in honour of St.

Hyacinth of Poland Hyacinth ( or ''Jacek Odrowąż''; – 15 August 1257) was a Polish Dominican Order, Dominican priest and missionary who worked to reform the women's monasteries in his native Poland. Educated in Paris and Bologna, he was a Doctor of Sacred ...

, was built in 1880 in the

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style.

History

The Diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe was erected 8 June 1852.

Jean-Charles Prince Jean-Charles Prince (13 February 1804 – 5 May 1860) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, teacher, seminary administrator, editor, and Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe, Lower Canada from 1852 to 1860. Life Jean-Charles Prince was born 13 Februa ...

, former coadjutor of Montreal, was named the first bishop. At first, the old seminary building was used as

pro-cathedral A pro-cathedral or procathedral is a parish Church (building), church that temporarily serves as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese, or a church that has the same function in a Catholic missionary jurisdiction (such as an apostolic prefect ...

and

clergy house A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

.Choquette, Charles. "Saint Hyacinthe." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 3 March 2023] A red brick chapel-cathedral was hastily built near the

Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu () was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest an ...

. During the funeral of Bishop Prince in 1860, the pro-cathedral began to show signs of weakness under the weight of the crowd. Charles La Rocque became bishop in March 1866. Realizing that the debts of his cathedral called for unusual measures, he closed the episcopal palace and retired with his staff to Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil, where he combined the duties of bishop and pastor. The construction of the current building was undertaken by Bishop Louis-Zéphirin Moreau, with the money saved by the economy of his predecessor. Its architect was Adolphe Lévesque, who fulfilled a contract for $50,000. It was named in honour of Dominican

confessor In a number of Christian traditions, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, a confessor is a priest who hears the confessions of penitents and pronounces absolution. History During the Diocletianic Persecut ...

St. Hyacinth (''Saint Hyacinthe''). Moreau is buried at the cathedral. In September 2022, Bishop Christian Rodembourg presided over the formal dedication of the cathedral.Beaulieu, Adaée. "La cathédrale de Saint-Hyacinthe dédicacée 142 ans ans plus tard", ''Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe'', 15 Septembre 2022
/ref>

Architecture

Lévesque designed the building in the Romanesque style. The facade proved too heavy for the clay soil on which it rests. A restoration took place in 1908 by the architects Maurice Perrault and Albert Mesnard. They secured the foundation and replaced the original square towers with two slender bell towers. The

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and acc ...

date from 1913.Paroisse Saint-Hyacinthe-le-Confesseur
/ref> A second renovation in 1942 removed the side balconies and installed a new baptistery. After the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

various elements of the choir were rearranged; Czechoslovakian glass chandeliers were hung, replacing neon light fixtures. In 1975, the tomb of Bishop Moreau was installed in the left transept of the cathedral. Additional repairs were made in 1998–1999 to the forecourt and masonry work.

Interior

The painting in the vault of the choir which represents the Eternal Father is by a work of

Ozias Leduc Ozias Leduc (October 8, 1864 - June 16, 1955) is one of Quebec's early painters. He was born in Saint-Hilaire-de-Rouville. Leduc produced many portraits and landscapes. Biography Leduc was mainly self-taught. Around 1880, he worked with Luigi ...

. In 1853 by 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 ...

, bishop of Montreal, presented Saint-Hyacinthe with a

harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

that was used until the installation of the Casavant organ, opus 8, in 1885.

References

External links

Cathedral website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Hyacinth's Cathedral Roman Catholic cathedrals in Quebec Buildings and structures in Saint-Hyacinthe Roman Catholic churches completed in 1880 Religious organizations established in 1852 Churches in Montérégie 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Canada Romanesque Revival church buildings in Canada

History

Architecture

Interior

See also

References

External links