Our Lady of the Harbour’s Blessing

The Notre Dame de Bon­sec­ours Chapel is the old­est in Old Mon­treal. The orig­i­nal chapel that used to be there was built in the mid 1600’s. Only its foun­da­tion remains. The church  was rebuilt in the 1770’s and has gone through many ren­o­va­tions and much remod­el­ling since then.  It’s an absolutely gor­geous church both inside and out and you can actu­ally see the inside here. The front of the church faces St. Paul street and the back of the church faces the St. Lawrence River which is one of the rea­sons that the church is known as the Sailor’s Church.

The dec­o­ra­tions on the out­side of the church have enthralled Mon­treal­ers and tourists for a long while. The Vir­gin Mary Statue at the back of the church is enor­mous and incred­i­bly impres­sive. Mon­treal poet/singer Leonard Cohen referred to this statue in his song Suzanne as ‘our lady of the har­bour’ and I’ve taken the lib­erty of bor­row­ing a por­tion of that lyric as titles for these images.

Cam­era move­ment allowed me to cap­ture ‘Our lady’ as she blesses the sailors that she watches over. Here are 2 of my favourite images of her ‘bless­ings’. Which one do you prefer?

Our Lady of the Harbour

Our Lady of the Har­bour ll