This road leads to the Montmorency River, a vigorous stream flowing
out of Snow Lake, ninety miles northward, down to the St. Lawrence.
For a mile or so above the latter river it has worn a series of steps
in the limestone rocks, making attractive rapids, and the waters
finally pitch over a nearly perpendicular precipice, almost at the
verge of the St. Lawrence, falling two hundred and fifty feet in a
magnificent cataract, the dark amber torrent brilliantly foaming, and
making vast amounts of spray. In winter there is formed a cone of ice
in front of these falls, sometimes two hundred feet high. The cataract
goes down into a deep gorge, worn back through the rocks, some
distance from the St. Lawrence bank, and protruding cliffs in the face
of the fall make portions of the water, when part way down, dart out
in huge masses of foam and spray. A large sawmill below gets its power
from this cataract, and it also provides the electric lighting service
for Quebec. Farther down the north shore of the St. Lawrence, through
more quaint villages--L'Ange Gardien and Chateau Richer--the road
leads along breezy hills and pleasant vales in the Coté de Beaupré, to
the most renowned shrine of all Canada, about twenty miles below
Quebec, the Church of "La Bonne Sainte Anne de Beaupré." This famous
old church is the special shrine of the _habitan_, the objective point
of many pilgrim parties from Canada and New England, where there now
is a large population of French Canadians, as many as a hundred and
fifty thousand pilgrims coming in a single year, and it is the most
venerated spot in all Lower Canada. The Coté de Beaupré, the northern
St. Lawrence shore below Montmorency, is an appanage of the Seminary
of Quebec. The little Sainte Anne's river comes down from the slopes
of Sainte Anne's Mountain among the Laurentides, and after dashing
over the steep and attractive cataract of Sainte Anne, flows out to
the St. Lawrence. Upon the level and picturesque intervale of this
stream is a primitive French village, whose people get support partly
by making bricks for Quebec, but mainly through the entertainment of
the army of pilgrims coming to the miraculous shrine of "La Bonne
Sainte Anne." The village spreads mostly along a narrow street filled
with inns and lodging-houses which are crowded during the pilgrimage
season from June till October, culminating on Sainte Anne's festival
day, July 26th. To the eastward of the village is the beautiful
church, not long ago built from the pious doles of the faithful, a
massive and elaborate granite building. Just above it, upon the bank,
is the original little church of Sainte Anne, which is so highly
venerated, and wherein the sacred relics of the saint are carefully
kept in a crystal globe, and are exhibited at morning mass, when their
contemplation by the pilgrims, combined with faith, works miraculous
cures. The old church of 1658, threatening to fall, was taken down in
1878, and rebuilt with the same materials on the original plan. It is
quaintly furnished in the French-Canadian style of the seventeenth
century, and one of its features is the mass of abandoned crutches and
canes piled along the cornices and in the sacristy, left by the
cripples who have departed relieved or healed.
This is probably the holiest ground in Canada, consecrated by nearly
three centuries of the most fervent devotion of the ever-faithful
_habitans_. Just below Sainte Anne is the companion village of St.
Joachim. Sainte Anne was the mother and St. Joachim the father of the
Virgin Mary. The tradition is that after Sainte Anne's body had
reposed quietly for many years at Jerusalem, it was sent to the Bishop
of Marseilles, and later to Apt, where it was placed in a subterranean
chapel to guard it from heathen profanation. The church at Apt was
swept away by the invader, but some seven centuries afterwards the
Emperor Charlemagne visited the town, and marvellous incidents took
place, light being seen emanating from the vault accompanied by a
delicious fragrance, whereupon investigation was made and the long
lost remains of Sainte Anne recovered. Ever since, her sacred relics
have been highly venerated in France, and it was natural that the
early French Canadians should bring their pious devotion into the new
Province. Various churches were built in her honor, the chief being
this one at Beaupré, by the devout Governor d'Allebout. With his own
hands the Governor began the pious work of erecting the church, and as
an encouragement, the Cathedral Chapter in France sent to the new
shrine a relic of Sainte Anne--a portion of a finger-bone--together
with a reliquary of silver, a lamp, and some paintings, all being
preserved in this church. The legend of the building is, that upon its
site a beautiful little child of the village was thrice favored with
Heavenly visions. Upon the third appearance, the Virgin commanded the
child that she should tell her people to build a church there in honor
of her saintly mother. Thus was the location chosen, and while the
foundation was being laid, a _habitan_ of the Coté de Beaupré, one
Guimont, sorely afflicted with rheumatism, came there with great
difficulty, and filled with pain, to try and lay three stones in the
wall, presumably in honor of the Virgin, her father and mother. With
much labor and suffering he performed the task, but instantly it was
completed he became miraculously cured. This began a long series of
miracles, their fame spreading, so that devotion to Sainte Anne became
a distinguishing feature of French-Canadian Catholicity.
The great Bishop Laval de Montmorency made Sainte Anne's day a feast
of obligation. During the French régime, vessels ascending the St.
Lawrence always saluted when passing the shrine, in grateful
thanksgiving that their prayers to Sainte Anne had been answered by
deliverance from the perils of the sea. Pilgrims flocked thither, and
many cures were wrought by pious veneration of the relics. As religion
spread among the Indians, sometimes the adjacent shore would be
covered by the wigwams of the converts who had come in their canoes
from remote regions, and the more fervent of them would crawl on their
knees from the river bank to the altar. To-day the pilgrims bring
their offerings and make their vows, pleading for relief, many
crossing the ocean from France, and it is said of these votaries at
the shrine that they now come, "not in paint and feathers, but in
cloth and millinery, and not in canoes, but in steamboats." It is
noteworthy that in all the vicissitudes of war repeatedly waged around
the famous place, the village being sacked and burned, the church was
always preserved. When the British under Wolfe, prior to capturing
Quebec in 1759, attacked Beaupré, they three times, tradition says,
set fire to the church, but by the special intervention of Sainte Anne
it escaped unscathed. Upon Sainte Anne's festival day, in 1891, many
thousand pilgrims poured into the village, and Cardinal Archbishop
Taschereau came down from Quebec, bringing another precious relic of
Sainte Anne--a complete finger-joint--which he had obtained for the
shrine from Carcassonne, in Languedoc, France. The Holy Father had
raised the new church to the dignity of a Basilica, and two years
previously he also sent from Rome a massive golden crown, set with
precious stones, and valued at $56,000. This crown was worn by the
rich statue of Sainte Anne, holding the infant Virgin in her arms,
which stands before the chancel. There was an elaborate ceremonial, a
large number of priests participating, and a solemn procession
translated the precious relic to the church, where, after the
services, it was venerated, the reliquary containing it being
presented to the lips of each communicant kneeling in the sanctuary.
Several miraculous cures were announced, but it is recorded that most
of the cripples taken into the church had to be carried out again
unrelieved. Around this sacred shrine crystallizes in the highest
degree the pious veneration of the faithful French-Canadian
_habitans_.