Our quartier or neighborhood here in Quebec is called Saint-Jean-Baptiste. The long street running through the quartier is Rue Saint-Jean. It goes out of our little neighborhood too, across the big street Honoré Mercier into Old Quebec, and that part is full of shops and tourists. But I love "our" Rue St. Jean best, the part we walk on every day to get to our car or the market or the park. It's still busy and bustling into the night. We hear shouts and running feet sometimes after midnight, people drunk or making mischief, but it doesn't feel unsafe, just very foreign to us.
There are two churches that flank "our" part of the street. We can see them from the house—Saint-Jean-Baptiste after which the quartier is named, and which has a towering spire I love to look at from my balcony—and the smaller Saint-Matthew which is visible from the front side of the house, out Daisy's and Malachi's windows and the other side of my room.
Saint-Matthew
For some reason these two sentinel churches just feel so comforting to me, like they are watching over the street and us. I love them. I'm not sure why, because the street is hardly a sacred-feeling sort of place. There is the "Bar le Sacrilège" right across from Saint-Jean-Baptiste. And I always prefer to look at the other side of the street when walking past "Le Drague" Cabaret Club next to Saint-Matthew. 🙄 And sadly, neither of them are actually used as churches anymore. It feels like every church is Quebec has been désacralisé, as they say here. Some have been demolished or completely ruined (though to its credit, I think the city is now trying to stop that from happening, to keep these buildings as places of "heritage" if nothing else), and many are now used for non-religious purposes. ("Still an integral part of the community!" one that was now a rock-climbing gym said proudly on its doors, to which I couldn't help but think: "Hmm. But does rock-climbing really do for the people what a church does?") But anyway, I suppose that's good. It's better than losing them altogether.
Still, it makes me sad to think about the people that built these beautiful buildings. Maybe they weren't all true believers. Maybe they were motivated by greed or poverty or coercion or pride, I don't know, but surely some, even many, of them were full of faith, building cathedrals and churches as their offerings of love to God! What would they think to see so many forgotten and left dark today? I read that in the 1950's, ninety percent of the Quebec population attended church weekly. And today it is four percent. Four! No wonder the churches are empty. To me it feels like a terrible loss.
In spite of all that, Quebec's churches feel like special places to me. I love seeing them from close or far away, I love their windows and steeples, I love hearing bells ring out every day from the churches that still do remain as churches. And I love our two Rue Saint-Jean churches most of all!
Saint-Matthew, the smaller church, has been turned into a library. I have to admit it's a beautiful library! And there is an old cemetery around it, which makes it feel like such a reverent and peaceful place. (Even if there are all kinds of shady-looking characters asleep on benches around it sometimes. And there's a sign on the fence that says "This cemetery is not your trash can.")
(one of the black squirrels that are everywhere here. I like seeing him mid-leap!)
Here is an old picture of Saint Matthew church and cemetery. I don't know when this was taken.
And some more pictures. Look at the snow here!
I wish I could have seen the streetcars on Rue Saint-Jean!
Some of the gravestones in the Saint Matthew graveyard are from the early 1700s. And some are being overgrown and swallowed up by the trees! I love to look at old cemeteries and think about all these people being resurrected someday.
From far away, we can find our house using the church spires. Here you see Saint-Matthew by the Delta building. And if you enlarge the picture you can see our long chimney at the end of the yellow arrow.
A closer look at our house, but from a lower angle.
The bigger church, Saint-Jean-Baptiste, is visible from almost the whole city.
You can even see it across the river, from the Île d'Orlèans. (And Saint Matthew too, if you enlarge the picture enough!)
And from closer in the city: St Matthew on the left (all you can see is the spire). St-Jean-Baptise on the right (you can see the whole church!).
Saint-Jean-Baptiste is just empty right now. (Or closed, I should say. I assume all the things are still inside it.) Some of the windows are broken and weeds are growing right up through the cracks in the steps. It seems so sad. But it hasn't been made into anything else either, so I wonder if that means the Catholic church is still hoping to open it again someday? To restore or renovate it? It is such a beautiful and historic landmark, I feel like they can't just let it go. And yet I looked it up and it has been closed since 2015. Nearly ten years now!
This church has been through so much. It burned down in 1881. Maybe another time too. But it was rebuilt and here it still is, with Jesus and the apostles looking down from it!
Here it is after a fire
And here looking so much the same as it does now!
I love it.
I love this beautiful statue in front of the church, too. Jesus Christ stands there with outstretched arms, and it reminds me that He hasn't forgotten the people of Quebec, even if they have forgotten Him!
Now. Let us walk a little in our neighborhood so you can see how it looks. Here's our street. Our house is the light brown with the arched doorway on the right.
Would you rather have that horse-drawn sleigh, or our van? :)
This is looking the other direction (note waving hands from windows). From this side you can see the funny spire I like, and past that, another beautiful and ornate steeple. This one is on a building that used to be a convent (Couvent des Soeurs de la Charité de Québec—the "Sisters of Charity." I like to think that the Relief Society sisters from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here—including me, in fact—are the "sisters of Charity" today!). But it's not one of the Rue Saint-Jean churches.
I like this house with red doors and window trim across the street. I sometimes see people going in and out with suitcases so it might be a vacation rental house? But I'm not sure. Most of our street is just residential.
If you walk a block and a half in the other direction, you come to this little park, Parc Richelieu. Our kids can be found here frequently, along with the occasional baby or dog.
A few blocks later, you can turn uphill to reach Saint-Jean-Baptiste and another playground. This one is by a school so we can only use it when the school kids aren't.
If you walk through the church courtyard, past the statue of Jesus, you will come out on Rue Saint-Jean.
The street itself is just so cute too. I love it. There are lots of restaurants. Little clothing shops—some nicer, some less nice. Used book stores. A little kitchen store with bowls and plates I love to look at. A chocolate shop. A gelato shop. Several bakeries. Several épiceries or grocery stores. I read that this street was laid out and named in 1650!!
Rue Saint-Jean is the street up on the hill near the middle of the picture. It is part of the haute-ville or upper town, so there have always had to be long staircases to get to the basse-ville down below. (Malachi has been known to complain about this when he goes off on his runs.)
This store, J.A. Moisan, says it is the oldest grocery store in North America. I love it because of the tarragon mustard I discovered there!
And of course I am also partial to the more modern L'intermarché which I can send children running to for forgotten groceries!
Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Saint-Matthew
I have especially loved walking on Rue Saint Jean with Sam on the warm summer evenings. It is so novel for us to be able to walk somewhere for our date night! And we still have so many restaurants we want to try!
I have wondered whether I take too many pictures of these churches. But when I look through this post, I am glad you have every one!
ReplyDeleteYour curiosity and determination to learn are inspiring!
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