Notre Dame du Cap Trois Rivieres Canada
Thousands of Haitian gather in Trois Rivieres for le “Festival de l’Assomption”. It is a 9-day novena that culminates with the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. The dogma of the Assumption teaches that our Blessed Mother was taken body and soul into heaven.
In this Shrine she is known under the title of “Notre Dame du Cap”. There was a small church on the grounds that fell into decline after the death of the pastor. A new priest was placed and one day saw a pig chewing on a rosary that was left on the floor. He committed himself to encourage devotion to the Blessed Mother and the rosary. A parishioner subsequently donated a statue of the Blessed Mother. With that more people began to come to the church and it became evident that a bigger church was needed.
The church was to be built with stones which were on the opposite side of the St. Lawrence River approximately 1 1/4 miles across at Cap-de-la-Madeleine. The plan was to bring the stones across the river on sleds once it had frozen during the winter. However, that year was a mild winter and the river did not freeze. The priest asked the people to pray the rosary to be able to get on the other side of the river. He also made a promise to the Blessed Mother that if she interceded he would dedicate the Old Church to her. Later that year pieces of ice formed a “bridge” across the St. Lawrence River, and this was attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Mother. At the site, a stone bridge was built and called the Rosary Bridge.
In 1888 the church was dedicated to the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary. That evening, several people were praying and claimed to see the statue’s eyes open for five or ten minutes. This small church still stands and a larger church was built to accommodate the thousands of pilgrims who flock there annually.
