Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Laval, François de, 1623-1708
The body of Mgr. de Laval lay in state for three days in the chapel of
the seminary, and there was an immense concourse of the people about his
mortuary bed, rather to invoke him than to pray for his soul. His
countenance remained so beautiful that one would have thought him
asleep; that imposing brow so often venerated in the ceremonies of the
Church preserved all its majesty. But alas! that aristocratic hand,
which had blessed so many generations, was no longer to raise the
pastoral ring over the brows of bowing worshippers; that eloquent mouth
which had for half a century preached the gospel was to open no more;
those eyes with look so humble but so straightforward were closed
forever! "He is regretted by all as if death had carried him off in the
flower of his age," says a chronicle of the time, "it is because virtue
does not grow old." The obsequies of the prelate were celebrated with a
pomp still unfamiliar in the colony; the body, clad in the pontifical
ornaments, was carried on the shoulders of priests through the different
religious edifices of Quebec before being interred. All the churches of
the country celebrated solemn services for the repose of the soul of the
first Bishop of New France. Placed in a leaden coffin, the revered
remains were sepulchred in the vaults of the cathedral, but the heart of
Mgr. de Laval was piously kept in the chapel of the seminary, and later,
in 1752, was transported into the new chapel of this house. The funeral
orations were pronounced, which recalled with eloquence and talent the
services rendered by the venerable deceased to the Church, to France and
to Canada. One was delivered by M. de la Colombiere, archdeacon and
grand vicar of the diocese of Quebec; the other by M. de Belmont, grand
vicar and superior of St. Sulpice at Montreal.
Those who had the good fortune to be present in the month of May, 1878,
at the disinterment of the remains of the revered pontiff and at their
removal to the chapel of the seminary where, according to his
intentions, they repose to-day, will recall still with emotion the pomp
which was displayed on this solemn occasion, and the fervent joy which
was manifested among all classes of society. An imposing procession
conveyed them, as at the time of the seminary obsequies, to the
Ursulines; from the convent of the Ursulines to the Jesuit Fathers',
next to the Congregation of St. Patrick, to the Hotel-Dieu, and finally
to the cathedral, where a solemn service was sung in the presence of the
apostolic legate, Mgr. Conroy. The Bishop of Sherbrooke, M. Antoine
Racine, pronounced the eulogy of the first prelate of the colony.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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