The English (Atheiral of Quebe}
THE ENGLISH (ATHEIRAL OF QUEBE}. READ BEFORE THE £iterary and jistorical $atitty, Quebec, 10th March, 1891, BY F RED. C. WUR TELE, ESQ. In writing the history of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity of Quebec, it will not be out of place to give a short sketch of those good Monks and Friars of the order of St. Francis who were the former proprietors of the land on which the sacred edifice has been built. The mendicant order of Monks, called Franciscans, was founded in Spain, in the year 1208, by St. Francis d'Assisi.* Subsequently they spread into Italy and were introduced into France by St. Louis of Gonzaga. They were also called “Récollets,” from the latin word “Recollectus,” sig nifying “meditation” and also “gathering.” Their chief works were teaching, nursing the sick, and ministering to the poor, whose wants they supplied out of the donations and alms which they received. In fact their livelihood was obtained entirely by begging, performed by the “Frères Mineurs,” and so highly were they esteemed and beloved in old Canada, that the “habitants” would always transport free of charge the results of their begging expeditions from village to village and finally to the con vent in Quebec. The boatmen invariably were pleased to ferry them free across the St. Lawrence, * DeSalignac, 64 Samuel de Champlain relates, that “he was convinced of “the necessity of religious instruction to influence such of “the Indian population of Canada as might be induced to “turn to agricultural pursuits.” In this connexion he was directed by Sieur Louis Houel, at Brouage to apply to the General of the Order of Recollets.
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