Buying an altar

When Quebec priests traveled to Rome in the late 19th century, it wasn’t T-shirts they brought back, but rather valuable religious objects. Like the six superb paintings by artist Cesare Porta that adorn the walls of Saint Anne’s Basilica.

The one above St. Joseph’s altar, depicting St. Michael fighting dragons, was not placed there by chance. Having failed to have the church built on his seigneury of Cap Saint-Michel, in Varennes, a certain Michel Messier asked that the altar be dedicated to him in exchange for a generous donation. He also wanted the altar to be surmounted by a painting of the man to whom his seigneury owes its name: eh, yes, Saint-Michel.

A request that has been respected in the four churches that have succeeded one another on this site since 1692, as attested by the letters SM engraved on the altar. A gift that clearly earned Michel Messier far more than a tax receipt.

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