devotion, it appears, was a great peril to which certain Breton sailors
were exposed: assailed by a tempest in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, about
the beginning of the seventeenth century, they made a vow to erect, if
they escaped death, a chapel to good Saint Anne on the spot where they
should land. Heaven heard their prayers, and they kept their word. The
chapel erected by Mgr. de Laval was a very modest one, but the zealous
missionary of Beaupre, the Abbe Morel, then chaplain, was the witness of
many acts of ardent faith and sincere piety; the Bishop of Petraea
himself made several pilgrimages to the place. "We confess," says he,
"that nothing has aided us more efficaciously to support the burden of
the pastoral charge of this growing church than the special devotion
which all the inhabitants of this country dedicate to Saint Anne, a
devotion which, we affirm it with certainty, distinguishes them from
all other peoples." The poor little chapel, built of uprights, gave
place in 1675 to a stone church erected by the efforts of M. Filion,
proctor of the seminary, and it was noted for an admirable picture given
by the viceroy, de Tracy, who did not disdain to make his pilgrimage
like the rest, and to set thus an example which the great ones of the
earth should more frequently give. This church lasted only a few years;
Mgr. de Laval was still living when a third temple was built upon its
site. This was enlarged in 1787, and gave place only in 1878 to the
magnificent cathedral which we admire to-day. The faith which raised
this sanctuary to consecrate it to Saint Anne did not die with its pious
founder; it is still lively in our hearts, since in 1898 a hundred and
twenty thousand pilgrims went to pray before the relic of Saint Anne,
the precious gift of Mgr. de Laval.

In our days, hardly has the sun melted the thick mantle of snow which
covers during six months the Canadian soil, hardly has the majestic St.
Lawrence carried its last blocks of ice down to the ocean, when caravans
of pious pilgrims from all quarters of the country wend their way
towards the sanctuary raised upon the shores of Beaupre. Whole families
fill the cars; the boats of the Richelieu Company stop to receive
passengers at all the charming villages strewn along the banks of the
river, and the cathedral which raises in the air its slender spires on
either side of the immense statue of Saint Anne does not suffice to
contain the ever renewed throng of the fa