Eglise presbyterienne La Croix (English)

Église presbytérienne La Croix

1429, rue Poupart, Montréal, Québec, H2K 3E9, Canada

Pour le texte en françcais -- fav.me/d6abkaw

Religious wars

In the XVIIth century, deeply Inside the very Catholic France, there are a multitude of "Reformed" churches. They have been authorized by Henri IV with his "Édit de Nantes" in 1598, which gave a certain freedom of worship to Protestants on the French territory and was ending two decades of religious wars. On May 14, 1610 in the streets "la Ferronnerie" of Paris, Henri IV was assassinated by François Ravaillac, a fanatical Catholic. The investigation concludes that an isolated action by a crazy man.

If the "Édit de Nantes" brought social peace in France, it also had the effect of creating a State within a State. The threat felt by the royal power is real, and Cardinal Richelieu intends to reduce it to nothing. Since 1598, La Rochelle became a center of the reformed religion in France. This port, last Huguenots safety place, receives English help by the sea, ready to intervene when it comes to undermining the power of their French rivals. The main fear is that the Cardinal fortress becomes a kind of bastion where Protestants and financially supported by England, could seize the whole of France. The Siege of La Rochelle by Louis XIII ordered and commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu. It starts September 10, 1627 and ends with the surrender of the city on October 28, 1628.

In 1629, with the "Paix d'Alès", Louis XIII, significantly trimmed the freedoms gained by the Protestants. The military clauses contained in the "Édit de Nantes" were almost canceled, but religious practice was maintained. Cardinal Richelieu, the spiritual leader and as Prime Minister of France from 1624 to 1642, managed to enforce the "Édit de Nantes" to strengthen its foreign policy: allied with the German Protestant princes and the Swedish crown during the "Trente Ans" war it would spare the Huguenots of France. The cardinal's death in 1642, and that of Louis XIII in 1643, challenged the security guarantees reformed.

Even though they were a minority, they contribute to a large part in funding the establishment of "Nouvelle-France" and its exploration expeditions. For Louis XIV and Cardinal Jules Mazarin, his prime minister from 1643 to 1661, he was no longer tolerate the presence of a heretical religious minority, but to reduce the Huguenots considered despicable to insignificance. They were a blot on the royal majesty. All the work of the kings of France since François Ier was to establish an all-powerful and indisputable authority, ensuring the well-being under "one faith, one law, one king". Those who do not adhere to this rule was considered as a dissident or rebel.

In 1656, Cardinal Mazarin attempted to impose the literal application of the "Édit de Nantes", based on a misinterpretation of the text, it is accumulating investigations, complaints, prohibitions or the destruction of schools and temples. Between 1661 and 1669, the temples were demolished and replaced by Catholics houses of worship, were forbidden to pastors to preach outside the temples, pro-Catholic bias is officially appointed to the judiciary, the Protestants can not apply to high charges and they are forbidden to exercise a number of trades, etc...

After years of persecution and forced conversions, the French Protestants who, apparently, virtually disappeared, the royal authority decides that the "Édit de Nantes", rendered obsolete, should be revoked. The "Édit de Fontainebleau", signed by Louis XIV October 18, 1685, permanently removes the last lines written under Henri IV.

In the "Édit de Fontainebleau", the text of Nantes is presented as an interim measure, a temporary appeasement compromise out of exhausting wars of religion. Henry would have wished that restore social peace by appeasing religious rivalries. The various events that marked France since 1598 have prevented monarchs to revoke the edict. Now that peace has returned to France that Protestantism seems to disappear, Louis XIV can and must revoke the "Édit de Nantes", as Henry IV allegedly had the initial intention to permanently asserted royal authority in a country for more than ever.

The "Édit de Fontainebleau" revoking the "Édit de Nantes" and prohibits any exercise of the Protestant religion, the emigration of Protestants and the banishment of pastors.

The Huguenots

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. French Protestants were inspired by the writings of John Calvin in the 1530s, and they were called Huguenots by the 1560s. By the end of the 17th century and into the 18th century, roughly 500,000 Huguenots had fled France during a series of religious persecutions. They relocated to Protestant nations, such as England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the Dutch Republic, the Electorate of Brandenburg, Electorate of the Palatinate (both in the Holy Roman Empire), the Duchy of Prussia, and also to the Dutch Cape Colony in present-day South Africa and the English colonies of North America.
Source : Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot

In "Nouvelle-France", the "Édit de Fontainebleau" was strictly enforced in the case of the State officers. It seems to have been some form of laxity regarding the establishment of settlers. The number of Protestants who have stayed in Nouvelle-France under the French regime is estimated at about 550. These "reformers" had different origins. Some came from Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, etc...), while nearly a quarter of them were prisoners, or their descendants, make in the roundups in New England. Nearly half of these Protestants were different regions of France: the Aunis, Saintonge of, Poitou, Guyenne and Normandie. Among these, there were one woman to five men. This was quite natural, since most of the women who came to "Nouvelle-France" were the "Filles du Roy", recommended by Catholic charity houses.

Almost every military regiments arrived in "Nouvelle-France" brings Huguenots, and as one of the most important French ports where ships to "Nouvelle-France" were leaving from La Rochelle, it is not surprising to find many merchants among those thereof. Anyway, it is always difficult to count these Protestant immigrants. The "Édit de Fontainebleau", and repression which was reserved in France, inciting them not to get too close to be see by the Catholic Church authorities. From 1632, the clergy of Quebec calls for a stop to let the Huguenots come in Nouvelle-France.

Among these 116 have abjured their Protestant faith in territory of Nouvelle-France. In those remaining, we can count some abjurations allegedly forgotten or damaged records. And how to qualify the old Huguenots became Catholic before their departure for the New World, is being converted only to save face or to obtain privileges reserved for Catholics. In 1659 we saw the first abjurations Protestants who adopt the Catholic faith. François de Montmorency-Laval, or Monseigneur de Laval (first bishop of Nouvelle-France) eventually reach a settlement of the Sovereign Council stating that Protestants do not have the right to assemble to practice their religion, in summer we tolerate the presence of merchants and their clerks in Nouvelle-France, but must seek permission to spend the winter. This permission will be granted on condition that they live as Catholics and without causing scandal.

Despite complaints of the clergy, the civil and military authorities of Nouvelle-France to will demonstrate tolerant and will not seep Huguenots entry in the colony. The arrival of Protestant in Nouvelle-France was constant except for a few years after the promulgation of the "Édit de Fontainebleau". In 1741, their presence seems large enough since the clergy complained three times to the council of the Navy in France. Another demonstration of a permanent presence of Protestants in Nouvelle-France is the diary of a British soldier who noted in 1759 after the capture of Québec as French Protestants attended a Protestant service.

But most of the Huguenots assimilated to the Catholic religion, by the second generation, we see children come into religion. We can be attributed to the fact that the children's education was left to the discretion of the mother and to share fifty Protestant, all the women were from Catholic circles (Fille du Roy, etc.. ..). Some strongholds such as Champlain, Batiscan and Bécancourt were places where many Huguenots settled.

British Regime

By the mid XVIIIth century, under British rule, the situation is changing rapidly and religious freedom is immediately given to Protestants, who soon form the new elite of society.

The "Quebec Act," the new Constitution, promulgated in 1774, which regulated the "Province of Quebec," was significantly grow the territory of the colony, it restored Canadian civil law and freedom of religion, but in criminal matters the English law continued to apply. The "Quebec Act" contained no language dispositions but implicitly the French Canadians were granted by Article 8 the right to use French in the practice of their religion and in the courts for civil cases. Many different burst about the "Quebec Act" on the relationship between Catholics and Protestants as the "Province of Quebec" is under control of the United Kingdom who had massively adhered to Protestantism since the English Reformation in the sixteenth century.

The English of New England who still fresh memory warlike incursions of French who had several thousand victims. Procrastination of royal power around the "Quebec Act" was one of the major causes of the American Revolution, which saw an American Protestant uprising against the Canadian "papists" privileges. The Canadian Catholic bishops then advocated a policy of conciliation towards London.

The mid XIXth century, Montréal, the so-called "ville aux cent clochers", is a commercial and prosperous city. It is the largest city in Canada and is largely composed of Protestants. The urban society being, at that time composed of the elite, the lower classes were relegated to campaigns. With the advent of the industrial era, the end of the century, working-class neighborhoods were born. An "artificial" division, but how obvious is created, east of Saint-Laurent Boulevard and along the Lachine Canal ( fav.me/d5byysq ) settled French and factories, and to the west of that Boulevard and at the north of Rue Notre-Dame have installed the English with finance and trade ...

As France had tried to remove all traces of Protestantism in its population, one could say that the West Island of Montreal is the only Protestant and East is totally Catholic, there is that a step that we will not cross ... Believe it or not, but there were Catholics on English side and Protestant on the French side.

Bayonne

This part of the Aquitaine, commonly known among the Basque "Euskadi-Nord" is composed of three regions "Labourd", low "Navarre" and "Soule", and now has about 235 000 inhabitants. The Spanish Basque Country or "Euskadi-Sud", located in Spain, has four provinces: Guipúzcoa, the Bizkaia, Alava and Navarra, and has two million inhabitants. The Adour River, which bisects the city of Bayonne in two, marks the northern limit of the coastal French Basque Country. The Basque Country is not a department itself, is actually a region of Aquitaine.

From June 15 to July 2, 1565, stands at Bayonne a series of meetings between "Catherine de Médicis" and Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, sent Philip II of Spain. At that time, the conflict between Protestants and Catholics occur everywhere in France. Bayonne seems unaffected by these religious crises. Firmness in the administration of justice and strict penalties allow the authorities of this city to maintain public order. Philip II gave the Duke of Alva formal instruction: it was to bring "Catherine de Médicis" to interfere with the King to suppress the Protestant heresy by any means necessary. Two lieutenants of the mayor of Bayonne in the second half of the sixteenth century, Johannes Sorhaindo Saubat brothers and often wavered between Catholicism and Protestantism, but always prioritize unity and prestige of the city.

In 1611, Cornélius Jansen said Jansénius became Principal of the "Collège de Bayonne". This young 26 year old man full of promise, a future bishop of Ypres, was the founder of Jansenism. Jansenism was a religious and political movement that grows mainly in France, in response to some changes in the Catholic Church, and royal absolutism. Bayonne and it becomes a time the cradle of austere Jansenism and learned that so strongly agitate the monarchy of Louis XIV.

André Desclaux

Now that we know a little more about the religious context that prevails in Quebec today, let me introduce the players in this story. It is the Duclos family (Desclaux) whose presence in Nouvelle-France just a little before the conquest by the British.

This is the French Basque Country who was born and raised families Desclaux and Hondarague. André Desclaux (Declaut, Duclos, Declos) was born in Laurede, In Chalosse, France around 1680, about 80 kilometers from Bayonne. He is a farmer, when on November 27, 1708, at Saint-Étienne de Saint-Esprit Bayonne, he married Marie de Hondarague-Fresiere (Ondarague, Ondaragne - Frezier ou Ferrière) they had essentially the same age, 28 years. The couple had three children before the death of André January 6, 1737.

• Marie-Madeleine (March 4, 1716 in St-Etienne d'Arribe Labourd - XXXX) Marriage : February 26, 1748 (Bayonne) - Jean Dubrahi
• Antoine (November 25, 1724 in La Cabane du Bourg - August 23, 1806 in Louiseville, Québec) Marriage : September 3, 1754 (Sainte-Anne de Yamachiche, Québec) - Marie-Marguerite Guay
• Jean-Baptiste (v1732 in Bayonne - 1812) Marriage : January 31, 1763 (Saint-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévy, Québec) - Magdeleine Désilet

Jean-Baptiste Desclaux

This is on March 17, 1753, one year after his brother Antoine, Jean-Baptiste went on the banks of the Adour river, not far from home to take the first ship of the year to Nouvelle-France. He signed his commitment to Quebec as a carpenter, some time ago. After attending the traditional Mass precedes great crossing, Jean-Baptiste embarked on "La Marie-Catherine" captained by Simon D'Arragory. At that time it took, during good weather, about 45 days to make the crossing, compared to three months needed a hundred years ago. However, if the ship encounters bad conditions, the trip could take up to two and a half months. A longer trip is problematic because the food and drinking water are not unlimited on a boat. In the case before us, we do not know the duration of the voyage.

The presence of Jean-Baptiste is reported in several documents stored in the "seigneurie" of Pointe-du-Lac near Trois-Rivieres:

• September 3, 1754, he acted as a witness at the wedding of his brother;
• April 13, 1755, he witnessed the baptism of Marie-Anne Declaut, daughter of Antoine and Marguerite;
• April 14, 1755, he witnessed the marriage of Joseph and Theresa, two Algonquin Indians called "Tete de Boule";
• October 2, 1758, he attended the funeral of Dominique Dery young son (6 months) of Maurice Dery, captain of the militia in the region.;

In 1762, Jean-Baptiste Desclaux met Madeleine-Angélique, daughter of Marie-Suzanne Lemieux and Joseph Huard dit Désilets, farmer at Lauzon. The following year, on January 23, 1763, Jean-Baptiste and Madeleine-Angelique promise to each other, when writing the marriage contract signed before the Notary Jean-Claude Louët son. The Catholic marriage was celebrated January 31, 1763 in Saint-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis. The nuptial blessing was given to them by Mr. Charles Youville Dufrost, the parish priest and son of Sainte Marie-Marguerite d'Youville (born Marie-Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais), foundress of the "Soeurs de la Charité" (Sisters of Charity) of Montreal, called the "Soeurs Grises" (Grey Nuns), she is the first person born in Canada to be canonized by the Catholic Church. The couple had several children:

• Jean-Baptiste (October 16, 1763 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis - March, 1819 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) Marriage : January 14, 1788 (St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) - Angélique Marie Roy;
• Marie-Geneviève (June 12, 1765 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis - September 25, 1765 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis);
• Joseph (August 17, 1766 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis - XXXX) Marriage : January 18, 1790 (St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) - Louise Marie Fortier;
• Pierre-Louis (December 29, 1768 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis - May, 1821 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) Marriage : January 16, 1797 (St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) - Louise Marie Miray;
• Madeleine (around 1772 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis - April, 1844 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) Marriage : April 19, 1790 (St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) - Jean-Baptiste Bourassa;
• André (October 9, 1773 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis - February 5, 1804 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) Marriage : October 8, 1798 (St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) - Catherine Huard;
• Marie-Louise (June 8, 1776 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis - XXXX) Marriage : October 19, 1795 (St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) - Pierre Rodrigue;
• Antoine (August 4, 1778 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis - May 14, 1859 in St-Pie de Bagot, Québec) Marriage : September 9, 1808 (Saint Lambert de Lauzon) - Marie Marguerite Victoire Lemieux;
• Michel (February 17, 1782 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis - around July 3, 1858 in St-Bernard-de-Dorchester, Québec) Marriage : February 2, 1808 (St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Lévis) - Geneviève Samson.

After a lifetime of adventures and extraordinary voyages, full of fruitful travel and eventful journeys, Jean-Baptiste left this earth for a better world April 7, 1812.

From Antoine Duclos (1778-1859) to Antoine Duclos (1809-1876)

Antoine was born August 4, 1778 in St-Joseph-de-la-Pointe-de-Levis, son of the carpenter Jean-Baptiste Desclaux and Madeleine-Angélique Lemieux. On September 9, 1808 in Saint Lambert de Lauzon, he married Marie Marguerite Victoire Lemieux. The couple had some ten children before turning off Antoine, May 14, 1859 in St-Pie de Bagot in Quebec: Antoine (1809-1876), Marguerite (1811-1888), Francois Xavier (1812-1888), Léon (1814-XXXX), Henriette (1817-1907), Augustin (1818-1864), Marie Louise (1822 - 1898), Louis (1824-1896), Marcelin Marcel (1826-1908), Apolline (1827-XXXX).

Antoine is the eldest son of Marie Marguerite Victoire Lemieux and Antoine Duclos. He was born May 15, 1809 in Ste Marie de Beauce, Quebec. On July 29, 1834 in the parish of Notre Dame de Rosaire de St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, he binds his destiny Julie Flibotte (Flibot, Filibotte, Philibot, Philibotte, Phlibotte), born in 1810 in St. Pie de Bagot, Quebec. Like most couples this time, Antoine and Julie were very prolific. They had 13 children: : Vital Zepherin (near 1835-1839), Sophie (near 1835-XXXX), Rieul Prisque (1835-1912), Marie Marguerite Bibiane (1839-1840), Aram Antoine (1841-1870), Esrom Aram (1842-1907), Julie (1845-1845), Silas Tyrannus (1846-1925), Olympe (1849-1921), Rachel Lydie (1851-1938), Sarah (near 1852 - near 1902), Henri Benjamin (near 1855-1878), Sophie (1858 - après 1912).

In the mid XVIIIth century, Antoine was considered by many as very intelligent. He could read and write, which was quite unusual for this time particularly he was a farmer. He was also agent for a agricultural implements manufacturer of and representative for a watch house in Saint-Hyacinthe region. Its neighbors, even among the most distant came to him read the letters they received and to write the answers. This had the effect that there was a lot of traffic around the house Duclos in St. Pie de Bagot.

At that time, in St. Pie de Bagot, travelers were rare. Occasionally there were some commercial travelers who came to offer rural household utilitarian objects (sewing thread, buttons, handkerchiefs, etc...) and others less so (trinkets, decorations, etc...), provided that it is easily transportable. These are almost never came in July at midday, when the sun was at its strongest. Yet this is what happens in 1840. There was an unknown man, wearing a black coat, which came on the dusty road, dried out by the sun. He stopped at the house of Duclos and asked to meet with the father. Antoine greeted at home by allowing just entered, as usual, without abroad had given the reason for his visit. When Antoine knew that he come from Quebec, he brought him and the conversation became animated about the past of the family who had long made ​​the crossing between Quebec and Levi.

Louis Beaudin, that was his name, was seller for the "Bible Society of Quebec." Seeing an open mind of Antoine he give him a Holy Book (the Bible or New Testament). Roman Catholic by birth, Antoine was an ardent practitioner, he lived for many years in the parish of Saint-Hyacinthe. He began studying the gospel teachings, religious practice became more spiritual. He took great care to bring the whole house every day after lunch, the work crush him or not, to a prayer. During these moments of contemplation, workers, servants and children; Catholic or Protestant listened to the reading of the Holy Scriptures by the master of the house.

In the census of 1851, like its neighbors Chiasson and Ménard, he says religion is Baptist. In an apparent harshness, and a character who sometimes clashed, there was at Antoine Duclos a big heart and a real piety he kept until the end. Antoine returned to see his creator June 29, 1876, when he died in St-Pie de Bagot.

Rieul-Prisque Duclos

Rieul-Prisque Duclos was born March 29, 1835 in St-Pie de Bagot in a Catholic family. As soon as he reached the age of 5, his parents, Antoine Duclos and Julie Flibotte, adopt a reformed religion in margin of the church of Rome. A count of the age of twelve, he attended the "Institut Évangélique Français" of the Pointe-aux-Trembles:

"Quelques jours plus tard, on était alors en octobre, c'était un jour gris et particulièrement froid pour la saison, nous partîmes; l'expédition comprenait cinq enfants : Octave et Pierre Pépin, Mathilde et Onésime Parent, Rieul Duclos. Deux pères de familles les accompagnaient, MM. Parent et Pépin. Le voyage ne fut pas très agréable ; pendant dix heures nous voyageâmes sous une pluie froide qui finit par se transformer en neige quelques instants avant notre arrivée à Boucherville ; nous étions transis, presque gelés.

(A few days later, we were then in October, it was a particularly gray and unseasonably cold day we left, the expedition included five children: Octave and Pierre Pepin, Mathilde and Onésime Parent, Rieul Duclos. Two fathers of families accompanying them, MM. Parent and Pepin. The journey was not very pleasant, we traveled for ten hours in a cold rain, which eventually turns into snow moments before our arrival in Boucherville, we were numb, almost frozen.)

Comme la nuit venait, que la "Grand'Rivière" était très agitée, un violent vent du nord-est, en soulevait les eaux, nous passâmes la nuit dans le village. Le lendemain la neige ayant cessé, le soleil très discret voulut se mettre de la partie. Pour traverser la rivière, on disposa les "coffres" et les valises au fond d'un canot, les voyageurs s'installèrent tant bien que mal sur les colis et à dix heures on aborda en face du collège. On avait mis deux jours pour faire un voyage qui prend trois heures maintenant [1913]."

(As night came, the "Grand'Rivière" was very agitated, violent northeast wind is raised in the water, we spent the night in the village. The day after the snow has stopped, the sun very discreet tried to save the game. To cross the river, we arranged the "chests" and suitcases at the bottom of a boat, passengers settled somehow on packages and at ten o'clock we landed in front of the college. It took two days to make a trip that takes three hours now [1913].)

Histoire du Protestantisme Français au Canada et aux États-Unis - Rieul-Prisque Duclos, Lausanne, 1913 (page 199). Free translation

When it came time to make a choice for higher education, Rieul at 17, chose theology rather than the right which his father intended. After two years of preparatory courses in Montreal, he went to Europe to complete his theological training. In 1858, he filed his doctoral thesis which is very well received. He thus became the first French Canadian to be an ordained reformed pastor. He returned to Quebec, the time of year-end exams at the Institute of Pointe-aux-Trembles.

During his stay in Switzerland, for his studies, he met Sophie Adèle Jeanrenaud-Grandpierre from Neuchatel, he returned to marry her in June 1860. They return found their family in Quebec where they have 6 children (3 girls and 3 boys): Charles Albert (1861-1951), Elise Sophie (1863-1938), Augusta Philomene (1866-1942), Frédéric Raynald (1870-1871), Arnold Willard (1873-1947), Eva Louise (1877-1966).

Upon his return, Rieul-Prisque, is employed by the "French Canadian Missionary Society". He took the office of pastor in Joliette, where he leads the community and built a school in 1861. Rieul-Prisque and Sophie Adèle were installed for a few months when the pastor of the Catholic parish launched a challenge to Protestants. Responding to this invitation, Duclos went to the Catholic church, where hundreds of people were waiting for the confrontation. At the end of Mass, the priest apologized, claiming they are waiting in the confessional, and that the meeting would take place again, which never presented itself. He returned to Montreal in March 1862 to take charge of a congregation that was a tenant of a building in the corner of Dorchester street and St-Charles-Borromée. Until 1864, he is working to modernize the infrastructure redevelopment of this parish and the construction of a new building for worship. In February 1864, we inaugurated the church built on Craig Street.

In May 1868, he was commissioned by the "French Canadian Missionary Society" to found a bilingual parish in the heart of what Catholic stronghold of Saint-Hyacinthe. He built a school to provide education for young English girls who want to learn French. It pays all expenses related to the latter project, he entrusted the management to his sister Olympe (1849-1921) and his friend, the Rev. Jean-Emmanuel Tanner. An arson destroyed the work in 1877 and requires Rieul Prisca a financial burden that dragged for years.

From 1877 to 1881, it will take a pastorate in the Quartier Saint-Louis in Quebec. In 1881 Rieul-Prisque Duclos installs Sophie Adèle and her children in Montreal, close to schools and universities, while trying in vain to establish a french parish in Farnham from the English parish he founded in Saint-Hyacinthe a dozen years ago. This town takes its name from the town of Farnham in Surrey, England. It is home to many of the Loyalists who fled the United States during the war of independence. Before this attempt, many English Protestants "protest" against such an establishment of evangelization in French. The project was abandoned in 1883 ...

As we have seen already Rieul-Prisque is a man of action, who does not stay long on failure. It is not a fighting man, when the path is too difficult, it takes a different path without renouncing its goal. Its main objectives being the evangelization of French Canada, he took advantage of the moral and financial support of European settled in Montreal to found in the very French Catholic community Hochelaga, a parish and there built in 1884, one the "La Croix" church.

Although his family lives in the Saint-Laurent neighborhood and his church in the Sainte-Marie (Hochelaga), he took advantage of the latter's position to provide assistance to the "little people" as his father had him teach at St-Pie. Providing support to workers, the pastor and his wife are working freely, suitable for lost funds, and gathering and hosts in his church house. They continue their good works until 1908-09. In the spring of 1908, on March 26, Sophie dies leaving her husband in great pain.

Rieul celebrates its fiftieth anniversary of pastoral ordination with his parishioners in 1909 when he offered his resignation the following year. He uses his retirement to travel and write his memoirs that it took the form of "Histoire du Protestantisme Français au Canada et aux États-Unis". During a visit to his publisher, in Switzerland, for corrections to his work. He died in Vevey, 13 September 1912, before they complete the final check of his book.

This is how it was announced in the English newspaper "Montreal-Star":

"Mrs. Alexander MAGE has been called to Montreal, Canada, by the death of her father, the Rev. Rieul P. DUCLOS, which took place last Friday at Vevey, Switzerland.

The Rev. Mr. DUCLOS was widely known in Montreal and the province of Quebec. For fifty years he had been a pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, embracing the towns of Joliette, St. Hyacinthe, Montreal and Quebec. He spent some weeks here in McDonald last winter and preached in the French Church, of which his son-in-law, the Rev. Alexander MAGE, is pastor.

The cause of death was apoplexy.

The Montreal Star says: The body will leave Switzerland on Wednesday for Havre. From there it will be brought on to Montreal, and the interment will take place in Mount Royal Cemetery on its arrival, which is expected to be about the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth of the present month.

The Rev. Rieul P. DUCLOS was born seventy-eight years ago at St. Hyacinthe and received his early education at Pointe aux Trembles College. He took his classical and theological course in Geneva and after his marriage to Miss Sophie JEANRENAUD of Neuchatel, Switzerland, came to Canada and was ordained, being appointed to a charge at Joliette. After some time he was given a charge in Montreal, the church he built being the old edifice at the Corner of Craig and St. Elizabeth, upon the site on which the morgue now stands. From Montreal he went to St. Hyacinthe, which charge he held between 1871 and 1876, going from there to take up church work in Quebec. He came back to Montreal again in 1881, and built the La Croix Church on Poupart street, holding that charge until a year ago, when after fifty years in the ministry, he retired.

His wife predeceased him about three years ago.

The children surviving are two sons and three daughters: Mr. C. A. DUCLOS, K. C., of ATWATER, DUCLOS & BOND, Montreal; Mr. A. W. DUCLOS, advocate, of Ottawa; Mrs. D. W. MORRIS of Ste. Therese, Que.; Mrs. A. MAGE of McDonald, Pa., and Mrs. A. E. HOPE of Montreal. One brother survives, Mr. S. T. DUCLOS of DUCLOS & PAYAN, leather merchants, of St. Hyacinthe.

"La Croix" church

As you can see from the photo, the building maintains this does not do justice to its 125 years of existence. When I was younger, it intrigued me to no end. "It looked like a church, but was too small to be a... strange..."

The Church "La Croix" nanny-built in Hochelaga, between 1885 and 1892 at the request of Rieul-Prisque Duclos, as a place of worship for the Presbyterian Church, which had up to 300 members in 1889. Reverend Duclos assured the department during the first 25 years of the parish (1884-1909). The Presbyterian Church, Methodist Church and Congregational Church merge in the United Church of Canada in 1925 and the "La Croix" church (Hochelaga - 1884-1947) is a natural part of this movement. Different french parishes of "United Church of Canada" will close over the years so that St. John will remain their only parish entirely francophone in Montreal.

Since 1995, the building was acquired by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Quebec Conference who installed his "Association Missionnaire Internationale des Adventistes du Septième jour, Mouvement de Réforme du Québec".

Google Street View - Right click on the link and open in a new tab -- maps.google.ca/maps?q=1429,+ru…

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