The National Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Cape

A land consecrated from the origins of New France

On the north bank of the San Lorenzo River, where the San Mauricio River pours its waters in the great flow that crosses Quebec, there is a place that the first French settlers simply called le Cap:: Cape. Today we know him as Cap-de-la-Madeleine, a small city next to Trois- Rivières that houses the most visited national Marian sanctuary in Canada and one of the most important on the American continent.

The history of Marian devotion in this corner of Quebec is almost as old as the French presence in North America. In 1659, Governor Pierre Boucher, lord of the domain that was then called fief Saint-MarieHe had the first wooden chapel erected in the place. The small hermitage served as a prayer center for the settlers installed in that inhospitable land, surrounded by immense forests and a river that in winter became a path and in spring, a deadly trap.

The devotion to the Virgin of the Rosary in Cap-de-la-Madeleine dates back to 1694, when Father Paul Vachon instituted the Rosary Brotherhood, bringing together the parishes around the community prayer of the rosary every Sunday. This practice was deeply rooted in the spirituality of those simple people: fishermen, farmers, timber, who found on the rosary a silver thread that united them to heaven in the midst of the hardships of Canadian winter.

The 18th century stone chapel: a witness to the French regime

When in 1714 the ecclesiastical authorities granted permission to build a stone church in Cap- de-la-Madeleine, the neighbors put themselves to work with the generosity of those who build for God. The works were extended between 1717 and 1720, raising a solid building, with thick walls, capable of resisting the crudest winters of the San Lorenzo valley. This stone chapel, which we know today as the Little Sanctuary o original chapel, is one of the oldest religious buildings in North America that is kept standing and in its original state.

Their walls keep three centuries of prayers. They have been prayed by the first French-Canadian settlers, the soldiers of New France, the survivors of the winter of 1709 - one of the most deadly in Quebec's history - and the pilgrims who continue to come from all corners of the world today. The chapel, of modest proportions and inner austere, transmits a peace that only gives the places that have been watered for centuries with tears and prayers.

After Father Vachon's death in 1729, Marian devotion in Cap- de-la-Madeleine entered a long period of decline that lasted almost 140 years. It was not until 1867 that an exceptional priest, Father Luc Désilets, arrived in the parish and reconstituted the Rosary Brotherhood, returning his Marian vocation to the community. It tells the chronicle that Désilets found one day a small pig chewing an abandoned rosary in the church yard, and that that image hit his heart: he understood that the devotion that the founders had sown had been abandoned, and that he should restore it.

The winter of 1878-1879 and the vote to the Virgin

In 1878, the ecclesiastical authorities and the parish community made a far-reaching decision: Cap-de-la-Madeleine needed a new, larger church, able to host a feligresry that kept growing. The plan was simple in theory but complicated in practice: to complete the supply of stone with quarries located on the southern bank of the San Lorenzo River, about two kilometres away.

The problem was the river. To transport the stones from the south to the north, the workers needed to cross the San Lorenzo. And to cross it economically and without the need for rafts, they needed the river to freeze enough to bear the weight of the loaded sled. At that time, Canadian winters were usually so rigorous that the ice of San Lorenzo reached a thickness that allowed heavy vehicles to pass. It was the natural way in which coastal communities were supplied for centuries.

But the winter of 1878-1879 was, with almost deliberate cruelty, extraordinarily benign. Temperatures didn't go down enough. The San Lorenzo River, instead of offering its usual ice path, remained rebellious, with large pieces of floating ice but without the strength to cross it. The months passed, the spring was coming, and the stones on the south shore remained inaccessible.

In the face of this situation, Father Luc Désilets made a determination that says much of his faith: he called on his parishes to pray the rosary every Sunday to implore the intercession of the Virgin Mary, and made a solemn vow. If the Virgin sent the ice necessary to carry the stones, she committed herself not to demolish the old stone chapel of the 18th century, but to keep it intact and consecrate it as a perpetual sanctuary in her honor. The chapel that was to be transformed would become the permanent dwelling place of Our Lady.

The Miracle of the Bridge of the Rosaries (March 16-25, 1879)

On March 16, 1879, when spring was already knocking on the door and the hope of having practical ice seemed definitely lost, there was something that the witnesses could not explain in any other way than as a supernatural intervention. An unexpected snow storm, followed by a sudden and intense cold, began to transform the surface of the river. In a matter of hours, the floating ice fragments began to join, to compact, to form an increasingly solid structure between the two sides.

The vicar of the parish, Father Louis- Eugène Ducoz, who had encouraged Désilets to trust Marian intercession, took the initiative. Along with a small group of parishes, he ventured on the newly formed ice to prove it, carrying the weight of a sled full of stones. The ice held. And he also held on the next day, and the next. For six days in a row - from 19 to 25 March 1879 - the workers crossed the river with their sled loaded with stone blocks that could weigh up to a ton and a half per load, carrying all the material necessary for construction.

On March 25, the feast of the Lord's Annunciation, the last sled crossed the river with its stone load. Hours later, the ice broke. The river recovered its movement. The step that had been miraculously solid for exactly the time needed disappeared as if it had never existed. The parishes of Cap-de-la-Madeleine looked at the show with astonishment: the Virgin had sent her ice bridge at the right time, and had withdrawn it when it was no longer necessary.

The preserved chapel: a sanctuary that was born of a vote

Father Désilets made his vote. The old 18th century stone chapel was preserved as it was. The new church was built next to it, not in its place. And the original chapel was consecrated as the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Cape on June 22, 1888, in a ceremony that would pass into the history of the Church in Canada for an absolutely unexpected event.

On the day of the consecration, Father Luc Désilets, his frequent friend and pilgrim Pierre Lacroix - a man of Trois- Rivières who suffered serious health problems and went to the sanctuary habitually - and Father Frédéric Janssoone, a Franciscan friar who exercised his apostolate in Cap- de- la-Madeleine, remained in prayer before the statue of the Virgin after the ceremony. The June sun was coming in through the windows. The silence was deep.

The opening of the eyes of the Virgin: June 22, 1888

It was Pierre Lacroix the first to notice. The eyes of the statue of the Virgin, usually interred in an attitude of meditation, were open. Completely open. And not with the inert opening of a sculpture that has always had its eyes open: there was in that look something alive, something that the three men described as an expression of deep seriousness mixed with sadness. The Virgin looked at them.

El padre Désilets, que a sus 57 años era un hombre de fe templada por décadas de ministerio, no se dejó llevar por la emoción fácil. Pidió calma. Invitó a los presentes a arrodillarse. Y durante varios minutos —entre cinco y diez, según los testimonios—, los tres hombres contemplaron en silencio aquellos ojos «oscuros, bien formados, en perfecta armonía con el rostro», como los describirían más tarde en sus declaraciones juradas.

Then the eyes closed again. The statue recovered its usual appearance. Father Désilets, Pierre Lacroix and Father Frédéric Janssoone left the chapel deeply moved. They had been witnesses of something that none of the three knew to explain in another way that as a manifestation of the presence of the Mother of God in that place she had chosen.

Blessed Frédéric Janssoone: a witness raised to the altars

The third witness to the opening of the eyes, Father Frédéric Janssoone (1838-1916), was not a priest. Franciscan friar born in Ghyvelde, northern France, had exercised his apostolate in the Holy Land before arriving in Canada, where he became one of the most active evangelizers in the province of Quebec. His figure was forever associated with the sanctuary of Cap-de-la-Madeleine, to which he contributed decisively with his preaching and his organization of pilgrimages.

On September 25, 1988 - exactly a century after the opening of the eyes of the Virgin - Pope John Paul II beatified him during his visit to Canada. Today, Blessed Frédéric Janssoone, a privileged witness to the 1888 prodigy, is venerated throughout the Canadian Francophonie as one of his most beloved saints. His figure and a relic of his are present in the sanctuary.

The construction of the basilica and the growth of the sanctuary

The consecration of the original chapel as a sanctuary in 1888 was only the beginning. As the fame of the place spread, first by Quebec, then by the rest of Canada and finally throughout the French-speaking Catholic world, the influx of pilgrims grew exponentially. The works of the new basilica began in 1955 under the direction of the Oblate fathers of Mary Immaculate, who had taken custody of the sanctuary. After years of construction and important finishing work, the basilica was inaugurated in 1964, when Pope Paul VI raised it to the category of lower basilica.

The Notre-Dame-du-Cap basilica is an imposing building of modern style, with a glass dome that unfolds the interior light and a capacity for several thousand faithful. But what the pilgrims come to see is not the new basilica, but the old stone chapel of the 18th century that is right next door: the Little Sanctuarywhere he lives the statue of the Virgin of the Cape with his look that once opened before three astonished witnesses.

Devotion to the rosary: soul of the sanctuary

If there is an element that defines the spirituality of Cap-de-la-Madeleine above all others, it is the rosary. Since Father Vachon instituted the Rosary Brotherhood in 1694, going through the restoration of Désilets in 1867, the miracle of the ice bridge obtained by the prayer of the rosary in 1879, and to this day, the rosary is the heart of the entire spiritual life of the sanctuary.

Every day, groups of pilgrims travel the Way of the Rosarythe path of the rosary surrounding the sanctuary, meditating on the mysteries of the life of Christ and his Mother. The rosary crowns are the typical gift that pilgrims buy in the sanctuary to take home, parishes, families. The very name of the miraculous bridge - the Pont des Chapelets, the Bridge of the Rosaries - reminds every visitor that it all began with prayer.

The sanctuary in the 21st century

Today the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Cape is entrusted to the Oblate fathers of Mary Immaculate. Its facilities include the original chapel of the 18th century - the Little Sanctuary- the great basilica of 1964, a vast open-air celebration, a reception centre for pilgrims, and numerous chapels and prayer spaces distributed by the gardens of the enclosure.

The sanctuary offers spiritual exercises, retreats, celebrations of the sacraments, and an intense liturgical agenda throughout the months of the year, with special intensity in the season of pilgrimages, from May to October. On August 22, the anniversary of the consecration of the sanctuary and the opening of the eyes of the Virgin, is the most important feast of the liturgical year of the place.

Our Lady of the Cape -Our Lady of the Cape- is today the patron of the Quebequese people, a mother who in the winter of 1879 sent her ice bridge, who in the summer of 1888 opened her eyes, and who has since not stopped looking at her children with that expression that Pierre Lacroix could not forget while living: serious, deep, and full of a sadness that is also, for those who know how to read it, a promise of love.

Practical information for the pilgrim

The National Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Cape is located in 626, rue Notre-Dame Est, Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec (G8T 4G9), a few kilometres from the centre of Trois@-@ Rivières. It is accessible by car on Highway 40 and in summer there are transport services from Trois-Rivières. The sanctuary is open all year round, although the season of active pilgrimages goes from May to October. The basilica hosts daily masses in French and, in high season, also in English and Spanish.