The homes of the Catholic orders in Quebec supply priests for the new parishes constantly being formed in Canada. They also send their missionaries to all parts of the world, and from one of the nunneries volunteers go to the leper colonies in Madagascar. Other orders maintain hospitals, orphanages, and institutions identified with the city’s historic past. Before an altar in one of the churches two nuns, dressed in bridal white, are always praying, night and day, each couple being relieved every half hour. In another a lamp burning before a statue of the Virgin has not been extinguished since it was first lighted, fifteen years before George Washington was born. Some of the churches contain art treasures of great value, besides articles rich in their historical associations. Driving in the outskirts of Quebec I met a party of Franciscan monks returning from their afternoon walk. They were bespectacled, studious-looking young men, clad in robes of a gingerbread brown, fastened with white girdles, and wearing sandals on their bare feet. All were tonsured, but I noticed that their shaved crowns were in many instances in need of a fresh cutting. These men alternate studies with manual labour in the fields. In front of the church of this order is a great wooden cross bearing the figure of Christ. Before it is a stone where the devout kneel and embrace His wounded feet. Near by is also a statue of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit Order, standing with one foot on the neck of a man who represents the heretics. There are in Quebec a few thousand Irish Catholics, descendants of people who came here to escape the famine in Ireland. They have built a church of their own. Another church, shown to visitors as a curiosity, is that of the French Protestants, who, according to the latest figures, number exactly one hundred and thirty-five. Though a city of well over one hundred thousand people, Quebec has an enviable record for peace and order and for comparatively few crimes. The credit for this is generally given to the influence of the Church, which is also responsible, so I am told, for the success of the French Canadian in “minding his own business.” The loyalty of the people to their faith is evidenced by the fact that even the smallest village has a big church. Outside the cities the priest, or curé, is in fact the shepherd of his flock, and their consultant on all sorts of matters. I am told, however, that the clergy do not exercise the same control over political and worldly affairs as was formerly the case, and not nearly so much as is generally supposed. It is still true, however, that the Catholic religion is second only to the French language in keeping the French Canadians almost a separate people. CHAPTER IX MONTREAL