St. Frédéric's Basilica
The Saint-Frédéric Basilica is a church in Drummondville in the southern Canadian province of Québec . The Roman Catholic parish church in the parish of Francis of Assisi in the Diocese of Nicolet has the rank of minor basilica .
history
The first Catholic church in Drummondville was built in 1822 on a piece of land by George Frederick Heriot, so St. Frédéric was chosen as patronage. It was 25.6 meters long and 11 meters wide at a height of 9 meters, the bell tower reached 16.8 meters. In 1856 the parish was established. The church was used until 1880, a replica is now in the local museum village of Village québécois d'antan.
The construction of the second church began in May 1879 according to the plans of Father Majorique Marchand. She was blessed on October 10, 1880 by Bishop Lous-François Richer-La Flèche, Bishop of Trois-Rivières . The walled wooden church burned down in 1899.
As a replacement, only a basement church could initially be built, on which a 57 meter long and 27 meter wide church, clad with light beige bricks, could be completed by 1904 according to plans by the architect Raoul-Adolphe Brassard. On December 19, 1907, she was blessed by Bishop Hermann Brunault, Bishop of Nicolet . But this church also burned down, on December 21, 1921 the entire interior of the church was destroyed by another fire, but the outer walls remained standing. An arson was later investigated. The restored lower church was used from 1923 to 1928.
The construction of the fourth church began in April 1922, the first mass took place on May 10, 1925 on 1,600 chairs, and the furnishing with pews, for example, lasted until the 1950s.
The church was blessed on July 1, 1930 by Bishop Hermann Brunault and consecrated on June 12, 1947 by his successor, Bishop Albini Lafortune. Renovations took place in 1958 and 1975. On September 22nd, 2015, Pope Francis elevated the Church of St. Frédéric to the rank of minor basilica.
architecture
The architect Louis-Napoléon Audet was given the task of designing the new, neo-Gothic church in the preserved Victorian neo-Romanesque outer walls. The single-nave church with its copper roof has a 41-meter-high bell tower on the right-hand side of the entrance, the cross with a cock reaching 45 meters. The narrower left tower is only 21 meters high. The facade is adorned with four statues, the work of Quebec sculptor Louis Jobin. The length of the church up to the three-sided apse is 57 meters, the transept in front of the long choir is 27 meters wide. In the entrance area, 20 steps lead to the three portals, behind which there is a narthex . The nave and the choir are crowned by a large, 15 meter high pointed arch vault with beautiful cross ribs and end pillars.
Furnishing
The high altar consists of a white Carrara marble altar table and a wooden retable . The altar is decorated with Venetian mosaics, while the steps are inlaid in Canadian gray marble with Florentine mosaic and alpine green marble risers.
The altarpiece made of white oak was designed in 1932 by Georges Trudelle with a central part as a sacrament tower and two outer branches, provided with abaster urns and putti. The French glass master Guillaume-Ernest Pellus created the large choir windows and the windows at the back of the facade. Five bells were purchased for the carillon in 1924, made by Wauthy de Douai in France.
The basilica has two organs . The gallery organ with 62 registers and 3967 pipes was installed in 1931 by the organ builder Casavant Frères . It is played with four manuals and pedals. In 1946 a choir organ from the same manufacturer followed with 14 registers and 843 pipes. Since the revision in 2000, these can also be played together from the gallery and thus enable the music of the rich French symphonic repertoire.
Web links
- The parish website (English)
- History and description of the basilica on musiqueorguequebec.ca (French)
Individual evidence
- ^ Basilique Saint-Frédéric on gcatholic.org
- ^ The Saint-Frédéric church becomes a basilica. In: presence-info.ca (French)
Coordinates: 45 ° 53 '3.4 " N , 72 ° 29" 19.8 " W.