MONTRÉAL, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - In the province of Québec (Canada).
The archdiocese of M. today numbers 946,535 Catholics, of whom 806,185 live in the city of M. More than 8,000 belong to the Eastern rite. 1,795 diocesan priests and 871 religious belonging to 25 different congregations exercise the sacred ministry. Eleven congregations of brothers and 54 female religious families consecrate their lives to prayer, teaching and the care of the sick.
Among the institutions there are 201 parishes, 18 public chapels, 1 seminary for the Foreign Missions, 1 seminary of philosophy, 1 seminary of theology (Faculty of Theology of the University of M.), 1 Catholic and civil university, 43 scholasticates and novitiates, 23 apostolic schools, 13 classical colleges, 726 schools and convents, 6 normal schools, 3 pedagogical institutes and 72 hospitals, asylums and orphanages. The archdiocese covers an area of 12,096 square miles.
The founding of the city is owed to Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière (v.), who met by chance with the Sulpician Jean-Jacques Olier at Meudon in 1640. Their conversation ended with financial help on the part of Olier to contribute to the foundation. A company called the Société Notre-Dame de M. was established to promote the glory of God in M. Paul Chomedy de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance, foundress of the Hôtel-Dieu of M., were among the first founders of the new settlement. On 17 May 1642, the Jesuit Barthélemy Vimond celebrated the first Mass at M.; in 1643 Marguerite Bourgeois landed at M. to open there the first elementary school and shortly afterwards gave rise to the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady (Congrégation Notre-Dame). Sister Marguerite was beatified by Pius XII on 12 Nov. 1950.
The population grew little by little; only in 1821 did M. have its first bishop in the person of Msgr. Jacques Lartigue, who remained vicar general of Québec and suffragan bishop. On 13 May 1836, Gregory XVI, with the bull Apostolici ministerii manus, erected M. as a diocese, and Leo XIII raised it to an ecclesiastical province on 7 June 1886.
Several dioceses have been detached from M.: St-Hyacinthe on 8 June 1862, Sherbrooke on 28 Aug. 1874 (which since 1951 constitute the province of Sherbrooke), Valleyfield on 27 Jan. 1892, Joliette on 27 Jan. 1904, St-Jean-de-Québec on 9 June 1933 and St-Gérôme (1951). They form the ecclesiastical province of M.
The diocese has had a primary importance in the development of the Church of Canada, a work largely of Msgr. Ignace Bourget, second bishop of M. (1840-1876). He introduced into Canada the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (1841), the Jesuits (1842), the Clerics of St. Viator (1847), the Fathers of the Holy Cross (1847), the Brothers of Charity of Ghent (1865), the Ladies of the Sacred Heart (1842), the Sisters of the Good Shepherd of Angers (1844) and the Sisters of the Holy Cross (1847). He also founded several female congregations that immediately spread throughout North America and also South America: the Sisters of Providence (1843), of Mercy (1848), of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (1843) and of St. Anne (1850).
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UNIVERSITY OF MONTRÉAL
The Sacred Congregation of Propaganda, approving the petition of Msgr. Ignace Bourget, bishop of M., asked Laval University of Québec to establish a branch in M. Among the many reasons that motivated this decision was the great distance separating the two cities, which prevented many young people from attending Laval University.
Instruction was inaugurated in M. in 1878 in the Faculties of theology and law and in 1879 in the Faculty of arts. On Feb. 2, 1889, Pope Leo XIII, by the brief Jamdudum, granted greater independence to the branch, but the institution retained the name of Laval University of M. On May 8, 1919, in response to a request from the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of M., the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities authorized the branch of M. to constitute itself as an independent university, and on Feb. 14, 1922, it obtained recognition for civil purposes from the province of Québec. On Oct. 30, 1927, Pius XI canonically erected the University, which in 1950 received a new civil charter.
For several years the University had only a temporary seat, but soon the authorities decided to adopt the establishment of a building worthy at once of the metropolis of Canada and of the high mission of the Athenaeum. The construction work lasted several years, and today the University possesses on Mont Royal an imposing building, which contains all the Faculties, one of the most remarkable university buildings in America.
The University has developed rapidly and has a great number of faculties: theology (with the Pius XI Institute for popular theology); law; medicine with the Institute of experimental medicine and surgery for advanced studies, as well as the connected Institutes of dietetics and nutrition and the school for nurses; philosophy with the Institutes of psychology, medieval sciences and family and social education; letters, sciences, dental surgery, pharmacy, social, political and economic sciences, with a specialized section in industrial relations and a section of social service. The university also includes the schools of optometry and hygiene and the affiliated institutions: Polytechnic School, Agronomic Institute of Oka, School of veterinary medicine (the latter two directed by the Trappist Fathers), School of advanced commercial studies, Higher normal school and the Institute
Marguerite d'Youville. In 1950 the Faculty of music was erected there.
The administration is composed of a board of governors (12) of the Catholic religion, a Commission of studies and an executive committee. In 1949-50 it counted 1,517 professors (of whom 300 in the affiliated classical colleges), and, in 1950-51, 12,195 students. - See plate XCVI.
