Saint Joseph's Oratory

Saint André Bessette, C.S.C. (1845-1937), more commonly known as Brother André, was a monk and a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross who became internationally renowned as a miracle healer. Due to his reputation, in 1904 he was given funding to construct a small chapel on Mount-Royal across from Notre Dame College[5] to operate out of. The small, Gothic Revival style chapel expanded four times over the next decade with the growing of Brother André's fame and the Congregation decided to fulfill his request to build a basilica in his patron saint, Saint Joseph's honor. The original chapel, measuring 4.5 meters by 5.5 meters still stands today, though it has since been relocated about a hundred meters away to make room for the massive basilica that stands today.

André Bessette, C.S.C., commonly known as Brother André.

The first phase of the basilica’s construction involved architects Dalbé Viau (1881- 1938) and Alphonse Venne (1875-1934) who had previously done work for the Congregation. From 1914 to 1916, Viau and Venne constructed the crypt church, with seating for 1000, which still stands today and forms the base of the basilica where the massive collection of stairs ends. Between 1924 and 1927, the crypt and building up until the roof were completed in the Renaissance Revival style. Viau and Venne had wanted the dome of the Oratory to resemble that of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and to be smaller than it actually is today, however they never had the chance to see those plans through as construction was halted with the Great Depression.

In 1937, Dom Paul Bellot (1876-1944), born in France, was hired to work after the death of Venne, however he was required to work through Canadian Lucien Parent (1893-1956) due to not being a registered architect in Quebec.[6] He redesigned Viau and Venne's roof and dome entirely, making the dome significantly larger and modelling it to resemble the dome of Florence Cathedral. The construction of his large Oratory dome lasted four years and was completed in 1941 after involving thousands of workers.

Construction of the dome in 1937.

From 1949–1951, architect Gilbert Moreau carried out alterations and improvements to the interior of Saint Joseph's Oratory, as well as to the adjacent monastery, and rearranged the sacristy in the basilica.[7]

Composer Émilien Allard was the church's carillonneur from 1955 to 1975. For RCA Victor he released the LP album Carols at the Carillon of Saint Joseph's Oratory for which he wrote the arrangements.[8]

On October 19, 2004, the Oratory held its centennial. All the bells of all the churches on the island of Montreal were supposed to ring at 9:00 a.m., though not all churches participated. At 9:05 a.m., the basilica rang its bell in response and celebration.

The Oratory's bells were rung in October 2004, to commemorate the centennial of the building's construction.

On April 2, again to commemorate the Oratory's centennial, Canada Post issued 'Saint Joseph's Oratory, Quebec' in the 2004 Tourist Attractions series. The stamp was designed by Catharine Bradbury & William Stewart based on a photograph by Bernard Brault. The 49¢ stamps are perforated kiss cut and were printed by Lowe-Martin Company Inc.[9] That same year, the Oratory was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.[10][11]

On October 30, 2007, Father Charles Corso, a priest at the Oratory, was faced with a disorganized and depressed man who threatened to kill himself with a handgun.[12] The priest talked with the man and managed to calm him down before police arrived on scene. The man was brought to hospital to undergo psychiatric evaluation.[12]

On March 22, 2019, a 26-year-old man wearing a dark winter coat and light-coloured baseball cap entered the Oratory during the Friday morning mass, rapidly walked up to the centre, and stabbed the celebrating priest, Father Claude Grou.[13][14][12] Of the fifty people attending mass, several intervened to neutralize the assailant, before security guards responded. Police officers from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal quickly arrived on scene and arrested the assaillant who was already detained by security personnel.[15] The assaulted priest suffered only minor injuries, a single stab wound to the chest.[12] That same evening, upon being wheeled out of the Montreal General Hospital, he said, "My health is fine. I’ll take a little rest and I will be back to work when my rest is taken. And the Oratory will remain a place where people can be welcomed. A place of prayers, and a place of calm, and a place of peace - even if there are some moments like that."[12]

Today, the basilica enshrines a statue of Saint Joseph, which was authorised a Canonical coronation by Pope Pius X on 19 March 1910 via Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli, previously enshrined at the Côte-des-Neiges Chapel. The image moved to the new modern basilica and was recrowned on 9 August 1955 via Cardinal Paul-Émile Léger now located within its oil chapel department.

The Crypt Church, originally designed by Viau and Venne, measures 63.39 by 36.5 by 13.1 m (208.0 by 119.8 by 43.0 ft), has a seating capacity of 1000 people and is designed in a neoclassical style. The ceiling is supported using the barrel vaulting of steel-reinforced concrete arches. The church is called a "crypt" due to its flattened arches as well as its position embedded into the mountain underneath the basilica.[2] There is a statue of Joseph made out of Carrara marble behind the main altar of the Crypt Church, added in 1917 by the Italian artist A. Giacomini. Eight stained glass windows depicting the stages in Saint Joseph's life were installed in the crypt in 1919 by the Montreal firm Perdriau et O'Shea.

Added between 1946-1949 between the Crypt Church and the rock of Mount Royal, the Votive Chapel is designed in Art Deco style from the plans of Lucien Parent, and relies on heavy use of geometric forms (square columns, square paneling on ceiling). The Chapel measures 31.69 by 15.2 by 27.43 m (104.0 by 49.9 by 90.0 ft) and contains approximately 10,000 candles, with the central lampstand in front of the statue of Saint Joseph holding approximately 3500 votive candles. The chapel, also referred to as "the Chapel of Ex-votos," has nearly 1000 Ex-votos (canes, crutches, etc.) suspended within it, left behind by pilgrims during the life of Brother André. The Chapel also contains eight bas-reliefs designed by Canadian sculptor, Joseph Guardo in 1948, which illustrate eight of the attributes which Christianity has accorded to Saint Joseph. The tomb of Saint André, sculpted in black marble, rests in an alcove in the middle of the Votive Chapel.[2]

The interior of the basilica, known as the Shrine, was designed using concepts by Dom Bellot as well as Canadian architect Gérard Notebaert, and uses a Latin cross layout with a dome at the crossing. The interior has an overall length of 105 m (344 ft). The nave, which contains pews to seat 2028 people (with a maximum capacity of 10,000 people), measures 37 m (121 ft) in width, while the transept measures 65 metres (213 ft) and connects to the shrine of Brother André. The apse, as well as the rest of the interior, is designed in Art Deco style, which was very popular in Montreal during the 1930s, and contains sculptures, bas-reliefs, mosaics and stained glass of religious imagery. The roof of the basilica is held up using reinforced concrete multi-angle arches iconic of Dom Bellot’s style.

The exterior of the Oratory is constructed using large blocks of granite from Lac Mégantic quarries in Quebec. The colonnade at the front façade of the building consists of four 18 m (59 ft)-tall, 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)-thick Corinthian columns which provide the structural support for the entablature of the front portico. It is also corniced and ornamented. The staircase which leads from the street to the base of the basilica contain two parallel flights of 283 concrete steps separated by a central flight of 99 wooden steps reserved for pilgrims who wish to climb on their knees.[2]

The dome of Saint Joseph’s Oratory is the largest church dome in Canada and among the largest and the tallest domes in the world, and this is a result of Dom Bellot’s very inspired and ambitious designs. His plans for the dome are very similar to those of Florence Cathedral, being of a “double shell” design, meaning it consists of two domes, one on the interior and one on the exterior with empty space in between. Like the cathedral in Florence, the outer dome of the Oratory consists of eight pointed arches laying atop an octagonal drum, with a lantern and cross. The outer dome of the Oratory measures only 17.78 cm (7.00 in) in thickness and the inner dome measures only about 12.7 cm (5.0 in) in thickness, which is approximately 18 times thinner than the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The concrete shell of the Oratory's dome is so thin in fact that when related to its overall size, it is akin to an eggshell.[2]

The two domes vary immensely span and height, with the outer dome measuring 39 m (128 ft) in diameter and rising 97 m (318 ft) from the nave floor and the inner dome measuring 26 m (85 ft) in diameter and rising 60 m (200 ft) from the nave floor. There are 16 steel buttresses along the inner walls of the drums that provide the structural support for the dome. They serve to brace the inner dome against the outer dome, thus making the supporting walls for both domes more rigid.