Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, Montreal

Alfred Bessette joined the Congregation of the Holy Cross in 1870 and took the name Brother Andre. He was given the job of doorkeeper at College Notre-Dame where he greeted visitors to the school. Occasionally sick people came to visit. Brother Andre would pray with them and they would recover. Word got around--more and more people came, not to visit the college, but to ask for Brother Andre's prayers. He attributed the cures to Saint Joseph and encouraged the people to ask the foster-father of Jesus to intercede for them. 

Brother Andre wanted to build a chapel to Saint Joseph on Mount Royal in Canada. With so many people coming to see him, it was an obstacle for the academic pursuits of the students. He was given permission in 1904 to build a chapel up the hill which he called "The Oratory." The first chapel soon was too small for the number of visitors, both the sick and those who came back in gratitude after cures. Expansions were made and finally a crypt church with a basilica above was approved. The crypt was completed in 1917. The basilica required more work, including blasting into the rocky mountain. Construction began in 1924 though progress stopped because of the Great Depression. Brother Andre died in 1937 and the various supporters of the Oratory felt a new impetus to finish the project. It was finally completed in 1967, though work on the steps down to the road is on-going.

We visited the basilica which was a breath-taking experience.

Side view of Saint Joseph's Oratory

As we walked in, there were displays on the life of Joseph, which naturally meant on the life of Jesus.

Young Jesus found at the Temple by his worried parents

Teaching Jesus carpentry

Another exhibit shows various actual and fanciful church models.

Amazing Polish creation

The Basilica can seat more than 2000 people and is spacious. The decoration is modern yet tasteful.

Nave

Sanctuary

The main altar is decorated in bas relief with scenes from the burial and resurrection of Jesus.

Back of the main altar

A relatively smaller chapel is dedicated to Saint Andre Bessette.

His small statue is on the side

The back wall of the sanctuary has a mosaic showing eleven scenes from Saint Joseph's life.

Mosaic of St. Joseph's life

Joseph marries Mary

Patron of a happy death

The Stations of the Cross are sculpted in limestone and surround the pillars holding up the dome.

Station I--Pilate condemns Jesus

Station II--Jesus bears His cross

The stained-glass windows are also very impressive.

Saint Joseph in glass

At the ends of the transepts (the two wings off the nave that give the floor plan its cross shape) are elongated statues of the twelve apostles. They are made of oak and are 4.8 meters tall (15.5 feet). We were fascinated to see one of the apostles had two heads! Looking it up in the guide book, we discovered that the Apostle Paul is peering over Peter's shoulder.

Apostles

Apostles on four-for-three special

Various medallion paintings of the Holy Family were taken from the Institut Nazareth.

Flight into Egypt

Learning a trade

The Nativity

Another happy death image

The organ , designed and built by Rudolf von Beckerath, has 5811 pipes. It was originally built in the late 1950s, then restored in 2011 and 2012. The longest pipe is 32 feet!

Organ

Visitors can walk out onto a concourse that has magnificent views of the city, include the College Notre-Dame where St. Andre worked.

College Notre-Dame with the green roofs

More of the city

The concourse also has a copy of Angels Unawares. We saw another casting of it at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. The artist is Timothy Schmalz. 

Angels Unawares

View of the basilica from the concourse

The votive chapel is a long, large hallway between the Crypt Church (which wasn't photographed because Mass was going on) and the rock of the mountain.

Votive chapel

Bas reliefs depict the various titles of Saint Joseph, including my favorite, "Terror of Demons."

Terror of Demons

Patron of the Church

My son lighting a candle

Canes and crutches were left behind by visitors to the Oratory in gratitude for favors achieved though Saint Joseph's intercession.

Crutches and Canes

The tomb of Brother Andre is located in a room just off of the votive chapel.

Tomb of Saint Andre

Bust of Andre

Statue of Mary with the mountain rocks behind her

Another level of the basilica has a museum with an exhibit on Brother Andre.

Various statues

Bell from the college

Doorkeeper's quarters

This area has a reliquary with Brother Andre's heart inside. It's another spot for quiet reflection and prayer.

Brother Andre's heart

On the other side of the parking lot is original chapel from 1904. 

The first Oratory

The main altar

Plaques of gratitude to St. Joseph and Brother Andre

An icon of Brother Andre

Outside is a statue sculpted in 1955 by Emile Brunet.

Brother Andre

Saint Joseph's Oratory is the largest church in the world dedicated to Jesus's earthly dad and is well worth visiting.

Biodome, Montreal

Montreal hosted the Olympic Games in 1976. Like many other cities, they had to build facilities for the events, facilities that would need a purpose after the athletes went home. Some of the park buildings were turned into museums. We parked in one of the underground lots and walked over to the Biodome, a recreation of five different ecosystems under one roof.

Part of the Olympic Park, now quite quiet

A stadium

Olympic Rings from an awkward angle

The Biodome looks quite futuristic from outside, but the ecospheres definitely feel like different places. We visited in cold weather and had to take our winter coats off as we visited the Tropical Rainforest area.

Scarlet macaws

More macaws

Blue-and-yellow macaw

Birds aren't the only animals in the forest. We saw a very lazy Broad-snouted caiman who did not even move for the five minutes we watched it. I guess that's good for a predator.

Broad-snouted caiman

The trees were home to Golden lion Tamarins, little orange monkeys with cute faces and very long tails.

Golden lion Tamarin

Such a cute face

A tunnel led us to see various fish and nocturnal animals like snakes and bats.

Turtle and Fish, a good name for a pub

Cute little fish

Uncute Emerald tree boa

Dyeing poison dart frogs (blue, not Oyapock)

Yellow anaconda

We went up a staircase to one biodome that was called "Bio-Machine" and was more like an interactive science exhibit, not an ecosphere. The kids had fun there.

What does the animal eat?

Screen time!

From our high viewpoint, we saw the Gulf of St. Lawrence area and the Laurentian Maple Forest.

Ecospheres from on high

We visited the Gulf of St. Lawrence area next. We saw some Black guillemots hanging out on the rocks far above the water.

Cliff dwellers

The main attraction was the waters, which was full of sea stars and sturgeons, along with the occasional aquatic bird.

Underwater stars!

Taking a swim

Not taking a swim

The next ecosphere was the Sub-Polar Region, which was basically a penguin habitat.

King penguins

Swimming underwater

A place to chill

More swimming

A small stream from the rocks

No end of penguins

Our final area to visit was the Laurentian Maple Forest, also the home of many cute animals. No creature is cuter than a river otter!

North American River Otter

Resting animals

The North American beavers built a large lodge but were not out doing things. The museum had a camera inside of the lodge, which showed the beavers resting.

Beaver lodge

Lynx hiding in the trees

Beavers not doing much on TV

A final walk led us through more of the Gulf of St. Lawerence aquariums with their huge sturgeons.

That sturgeon is going for your neck!

Upwardly-mobile sturgeon

Snail with shell on its back

Moon jellies in their own tank

It's fun to see a bit of nature we don't get to see in our day-to-day lives.