St. Patrick’s Basilica- Montreal, QC

Montreal has no shortage of historic churches. St. Patrick’s is a bit quieter than other top tourist destinations, but no less lovely. While Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours in Old Montreal was traditionally home to the French Speaking Catholics in the city, it became overwhelmed with the large influx of Irish immigrants around 1817. Although the Irish initially found refuge at the Church of the Recollets, as their numbers swelled, it became clear they needed their own church. 

With cornerstones laid in September of 1843, St. Patrick’s, the Grand Gothic Revival designed by P.L. Morin and Felix Martin, became the oldest English Speaking Roman Catholic church in Montreal. Highly decorative, the church features 82 foot columns carved from white oak, encased in marble, as well as four rosette stained glass windows, designed by Alex S. Lock. Over 150 oil paintings of Saints hang in the church, as well as motifs that combine the French fluer de lys with the Irish shamrock. 

Appropriately, the first mass was celebrated here on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1847. Over one hundred years later, on St. Patrick’s day in 1989, the church was promoted to the title of minor basilica by Pope John Paul II.