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Sacré-Cœur Parish
On January 30, 2009, the Ontario Heritage Trust and the Sacré-Cœur Roman Catholic Church unveiled a provincial plaque at Sacré-Cœur Church in Toronto, Ontario, to commemorate the Sacré-Cœur Parish.
The bilingual plaque reads as follows:
SACRÉ-CŒUR PARISH
- In 1887, Sacré-Cœur Parish was founded as the first Roman Catholic parish to serve the French-Canadian community in Toronto. Father Philippe Lamarche came from Montreal to found the church and served as priest until his death in 1924. The Parish's first church building, located on King Street near Sackville Street, was purchased from a Presbyterian congregation in 1888. Since that time, francophones have been able to worship in their own language at Sacré-Cœur Church. This building was designed and constructed for worship and was blessed in 1937. In 1951 the structure was enlarged to accommodate a growing congregation. Sacré-Cœur has served both as a spiritual and cultural centre for many of its French-speaking parishioners who emigrated from Quebec, the Maritimes, northern Ontario, Europe, and more recently from Africa.
PAROISSE SACRÉ-CŒUR
- L’année 1887 marque la création de la paroisse Sacré-Cœur, première paroisse catholique romaine à servir la communauté canadienne-française de Toronto. Le père Philippe Lamarche, prêtre de Montréal, fonde l’église et y exerce son ministère jusqu’à sa mort en 1924. La première église de la paroisse, sise rue King, près de la rue Sackville, est achetée en 1888 à une congrégation presbytérienne. Les francophones prient depuis lors dans leur langue à l’église Sacré-Cœur. Le bâtiment a été conçu et construit comme lieu de culte en 1937. Il a été agrandi en 1951 pour pouvoir accueillir davantage de fidèles. L’église Sacré-Cœur sert à la fois de centre spirituel et de centre culturel pour bon nombre de paroissiens francophones, lesquels ont émigré à Toronto en provenance du Québec, des Maritimes, du Nord de l’Ontario, d’Europe et, ces dernières années, d’Afrique.
Historical background
The founding of Toronto's Sacré-Cœur Parish
French-Canadians began arriving in Toronto during the latter half of the 19th century. They came to take advantage of the large number of manufacturing jobs that were available in the city due to strong economic growth at that time. For religious services, the first francophones in Toronto attended English-speaking parishes such as St. Patrick’s Parish on McCaul Street and St. Basil's near Bay and Bloor streets. These parishes occasionally invited a French-Canadian priest to conduct services. As elsewhere in North America, however, French-Canadians were not satisfied with this arrangement because, in addition to the language, significant differences in religious traditions existed between the French and English branches of the Roman Catholic Church.1
Toronto's francophone population grew rapidly, from 467 in 1851 to 1,230 in 1881.2 In the spring of 1887, a group of French-Canadians requested that Roman Catholic Archbishop John Joseph Lynch create a French parish in the city. In response, Father Philippe Lamarche came from Montreal to found Sacré-Cœur Parish, the first parish to serve parishioners from one specific ethno-cultural group in their own language, other than English.3 Father Lamarche arrived on June 24, 1887 and celebrated his first mass in the city at St. Vincent's Chapel of St. Michael's Palace. The francophone community held religious services at this location prior to his arrival and continued to worship there for the first 15 months of the Parish's existence. At the time of its inception, Sacré-Cœur Parish had 130 families, mostly from Quebec, with some from Acadia and Europe.4
During the first decades, most of the parishioners had similar backgrounds: they were from the rural parishes in Quebec — some from Charlevoix and Portneuf Counties, others from the Lower Saint Lawrence and from Estrie — as well as from areas of Ontario. Often, the father or the oldest son arrived first to find employment and a place to live before sending for the rest of the family. Many men lived in the area bordered by Yonge, King, River and Gerrard streets.5 They were unskilled wage workers who shared the challenges of finding housing for large families, and of coping with working and living in a different language.
The Parish was organized similar to rural Quebec areas with the pastor as the central figure responsible for organizing religious and social activities.6 Father Lamarche fulfilled both roles well and was much loved by his parishioners who long remembered his kindness, as well as the sight of him in his cassock riding a bicycle to meetings and visits, even after the Parish gave him an automobile.7
Sacré-Cœur's first church building was a former Presbyterian church located at 436 King Street East, between Sackville Street and the Don River.8 It was dedicated as a Roman Catholic place of worship on October 7, 1888 and that same year, the first classes of l'École Sacré-Cœur were held in the basement of the church. Father Lamarche initially taught the classes, but the school grew steadily and in September 1891, two Sisters of Saint Joseph assumed the teaching duties.9 In 1896, a school was built by the parishioners working in construction bees, and a rectory was added in 1900.10
From its early days, Sacré-Cœur, in addition to operating as a religious institution, also functioned as a social and cultural centre for francophones. Often the spiritual and the social activities overlapped. An example of this was the role played by the Gendron Manufacturing Company. Alfred Gendron hired many parishioners to work in his factory, which began by making baby carriages, and later expanded to manufacture beds, sleds, ladders, outdoor chairs and wheelchairs.11 He was known to never reject anyone for employment, and his financial generosity was instrumental in making the purchase of the first church possible.12
In 1912, a banquet was held in honour of Father Lamarche at the Orr Brothers restaurant with some 250 people in attendance, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the founding of Sacré-Cœur.13
The Parish continues to grow
Sacré-Cœur continued to grow and flourish, but by 1916, Father Lamarche’s health had begun to fail. He expressed the need for an assistant pastor to a visiting priest, Father Toussaint Lussier. Acting as intermediary between the bishops of Toronto and Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec, Father Lussier helped arrange for his nephew, Father Rodrigue Lussier from Iberville, Quebec, to become the assistant at Sacré-Cœur.14 Father Lamarche passed away on December 21, 1924, and his nephew, Édouard Lamarche, succeeded him as pastor.
Industrial activity driven by the First World War brought a new wave of large numbers of French-Canadians to Toronto. As a result, a second francophone parish, Sainte Jeanne d'Arc, was opened in the west end of the city in 1919. The church was built at the corner of Dundas and Edna streets. However, due to the recession following the war, many French-Canadians left Toronto to find opportunities elsewhere. By 1928, half of the francophone parishioners of Sainte Jeanne d'Arc were gone. Many Irish-Catholics moved into the west-end neighborhood, the Parish became anglophone, and its name was changed to St. Joan of Arc.15
By the 1930s, new church facilities became necessary in the downtown location once again. The Sacré-Cœur Parish had grown to over 500 families and the existing church building needed expensive repairs. A committee was established to seek approval for the construction of a new church and it assured the Archbishop that the Parish was financially able to undertake the project.16 Although it was the middle of the Great Depression (1929-39), funds were available from the estate of the founding pastor, Philippe Lamarche, and also from wealthy parishioners.17
A site near the corner of Sherbourne and Bloor streets was suggested for the new church structure, but rejected by the pastor who considered it too great a distance from the homes of the poorer parishioners.18 Instead, the Parish purchased a lot at the corner of Sherbourne and Carlton streets, and the consecration of the newly constructed church took place in June 1937 at a mass officiated by Archbishop James Charles McGuiguan. He was assisted by two sons from parish families, Fathers Gilles Labelle and Philippe Bouvier.19 At the new church, as at the old, the wide front steps were a favorite place for people to linger after services to chat and visit with one another in French — a warm reminder of life in their native towns.20 A new rectory was added in 1939.
The Parish moved on to a new phase of development as parishioners began to pursue leisure activities. In 1937, the theatre group Les Amateurs presented an evening of theatre and music, and in 1938, the French organist Renée Nizan gave a recital along with parishioners Lambert Dusseau and Dr. A. Dalcourt.21
A multitude of Parish activities in the 1940s and 1950s
The Second World War brought additional francophones to Toronto. Some were attracted by the jobs created by the war economy, and others passed through as transient soldiers. A group of women organized an auxiliary committee to visit francophone soldiers at Christie Street Military Hospital.22 Father Lamarche encouraged his parishioners to invite francophone soldiers to Sunday mass, as well as into their homes.23
Sunday evenings after vespers, some parishioners gathered at the Labonté home in Rosedale for social get-togethers. Evenings of piano music, dancing and singing were organized by the Club Dollard des Ormeaux — a young people's club of 60 to 100 members — all attracted by the opportunity to socialize in French. Other young people participated in theatrical presentations, some including musical numbers, which were performed for audiences of military personnel, sometimes as far away as Hamilton.24
After the Second World War, another wave of francophone immigrants arrived in Toronto from Quebec, northern Ontario, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The prevailing British imperial sentiment in the city meant that these people often felt uncomfortable speaking French in public.25 They looked to Sacré-Cœur not only for their spiritual needs, but also for the opportunity to participate in the French-speaking recreational and cultural activities that began to diversify during the 1940s and proliferate in the 1950s.
The tendency among Toronto's francophones to gather at work, home and at church continued. During the 1950s, many francophones who were working on the construction of Highway 401 lodged at a rooming house on Yorkville Avenue, maintained by Sacré-Cœur parishioner Grace Arsenault-Landry. Father Lamarche nicknamed the establishment ''La maison du bon Dieu.'' During Lent, there was a perpetual adoration or watch in the church and the francophone men from the rooming house went as a group in the middle of the night to keep their hour of vigil.26
The growth of the Parish during the 1940s and 1950s was demonstrated by the number of baptisms. The largest number performed in the Parish was 303 in 1956 at the height of the post-war ‘baby boom’ (1945-c. 1960). By comparison, there were 100 in 1945, 254 in 1965, and 94 in 1975.27
As the Parish continued to grow, schools remained a priority. In 1940, a bilingual school was opened on Sackville Street and was staffed by five teachers. In 1943, two Sisters of Notre-Dame arrived from Montreal to teach at l'École Sacré-Cœur with Mère Sainte-Marie-Félicien, who served as the principal for eight years. During this time, enrolment climbed, and two more sisters arrived in 1945. Some students came from as far away as Oakville.28 A new elementary school opened on Sherbourne Street in 1948, followed in 1951 by a bilingual secondary school that used space in the new elementary school located on Sackville Street. Soon, more room was required and a building was rented on Jarvis Street to house the secondary school.29
The Sacré-Cœur church building also needed enlarging and in 1951, two side aisles were added to the sanctuary.30
The Notre-Dame Sisters moved into a new convent at the corner of St. George and Lowther streets in 1952. The following year, they opened a residential convent school for girls, Villa Marguerite Bourgeoys (also on St. George Street), in a former residence of the Eaton family.31
Acadians continued to comprise a large component of the Parish. The Club Acadien was formed in 1953, and, in commemoration of the bicentenary of the Acadian Deportation (1755-63), a banquet was held in the Crystal Ballroom of the King Edward Hotel in 1955 with some 300 people in attendance.32 The pastor from Néguac, a village in New Brunswick, visited Toronto during that same year to meet with 150 of his former parishioners who then belonged to Sacré-Cœur.33
There were associations, clubs and activities for all members of the Parish. The clubs included Dames de Sainte-Anne, Cercle familial scolaire, Cercle Lacordaire, and Cercle Jeanne d'Arc. A sports festival hosted by the group, les Canadiens français de Toronto, took place at Leaside Memorial Gardens in 1955 and included a baked bean supper, a dance, a boxing match, hockey matches and skating activities. Club Fleur de Lys was another social and sports club founded during the same year.34
Theatre was a popular activity and in 1956, a group of young actors organized Le Petit Théâtre.35 Les Ceintures Fléchées, a choral group with 50 members, existed from 1954-64, and recorded an album of Christmas carols in 1959.36 The Toronto section of the Fédération des femmes canadiennes-françaises (FFCF) was founded in the Parish in 1956. One of the largest clubs was the Club Sacré-Cœur with 300 young people as members. They met three times a week to socialize, participate in sports and play cards.37 A former school located on Ontario Street, south of Gerrard Street, was their meeting place.38 L'École Sacré-Cœur saw the creation, in 1957, of the Comité sportif that organized teams for the boys.39 A credit union was organized in 1963 and existed for 17 years.40 The Cercle Lamarche was the local section of the Association Catholique de la Jeunesse Canadienne (ACJC).41 Two sports legends were guests of parish clubs: Maurice Richard in 1957 and Yvon Durelle in 1959.42 The Cercle familial scolaire participated with other francophone groups in efforts begun in 1953 to obtain a radio station, resulting in the creation of CJBC in 1964.
Changes since the 1960s
Father Édouard Lamarche died in 1962 and was succeeded by Father Alphonse Bélanger, a native of Lafontaine.43 The francophone population of Toronto continued to grow and spread towards the suburbs. This resulted in the establishment of the bilingual secondary school Monseigneur de Charbonnel in 1963, located in the northern neighbourhood of Yonge Street and Cummer Avenue, and the creation of Saint Louis de France Parish in North York in 1967.44
During the 1960s, Sacré-Cœur's congregation decreased in size, and its ethnic and social composition changed. The number of middle-class and professional members declined and by the end of the decade the Parish was comprised largely of working-class people. Several factors brought about these changes. Families moved outward to the suburbs and French schools were made available to them there.45 A decline in religious practice among French-Canadians in general occurred, especially amongst middle-class professionals who arrived from Quebec following the Quiet Revolution,46 and Acadians from the Maritimes made up about two-thirds of the Parish.47
Despite the decline in the size of the congregation, the Parish demonstrated continued vitality with the creation of new clubs and activities. Scouting made its appearance during the 1960s. The Théâtre du P'tit Bonheur got its start in a parish group during the 1967 Canadian centennial celebrations, and evolved into a professional troupe.48 The 1970s saw new organizations for seniors and the Soirées Acadiennes à Harbourfront.49 The Parish sponsored the resettlement of a Vietnamese family in the 1980s.50 In 1981, the Parish had 137 families, and 500 to 600 people attended mass every Sunday.51
Sacré-Cœur's evolution was also affected by the changing status of the French language in Ontario. New institutions, often government-sponsored, offered leisure and cultural activities in French, and largely assumed the social role that the Parish had played since its inception.
Toronto's central core underwent significant renewal of its residential areas around the turn of the 20th century. This resulted in the return of families to the Cabbagetown52 neighbourhood and nearby areas. The city centre continued to be a popular destination for many new immigrants, and significant numbers of Catholic francophones came to Toronto, in particular from African countries. In 2001, the congregation of Sacré-Cœur numbered 791. Parish organizations included the Chevaliers de Colomb, the Filles d'Isabelle, the Fédération des femmes canadiennes-françaises, the Société Saint Vincent de Paul, and the Comité des Jeunes. While most of the congregation lived in central Toronto, some parishioners commuted up to an hour to continue to be part of the Parish. Sacré-Cœur's priests served three nearby schools: Sacré-Cœur, Sainte Marguerite d'Youville and George-Étienne Cartier.53
The Parish of Sacré-Cœur is considered by many to be the first established French institution in Toronto.54 It continues to fulfill a spiritual role and provide a cultural connection for many francophones residing in the city of Toronto to this day.
The Ontario Heritage Trust gratefully acknowledges the research of Robert J. Burns in preparing this paper.
© Ontario Heritage Trust, 2009
1 Thomas R. Maxwell, The Invisible French: The French in Metropolitan Toronto, Waterloo, Ontario, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1977, p. 29.
2 Clermont Trudel and Pierre Fortier, Toronto se raconte: La paroisse du Sacré-Cœur, Toronto, La Société d'histoire de Toronto, 1987, p. 22.
3 Maxwell, p. 28.
4 Trudel, p. 25.
5 Trudel, p. 38.
6 Maxwell, p. 30.
7 Trudel, p. 48.
8 Maxwell, p. 29.
9 Maxwell, p. 30.
10 Trudel, pp. 26, 43.
11 Trudel, p. 40.
12 Trudel, p. 38.
13 Trudel, p. 26.
14 Trudel, pp. 26-27.
15 Trudel, pp. 28-29.
16 Trudel, p. 52.
17 Trudel, p. 52, and Maxwell, p. 32, note 24.
18 Maxwell, p. 32.
19 Trudel, p. 53.
20 Trudel, p. 85.
21 Trudel, p. 54.
22 The forerunner to Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto.
23 Trudel, p. 66
24 Trudel, p. 69.
25 Trudel, pp. 76-77.
26 Trudel, p. 64.
27 Trudel, p. 60.
28 Trudel, p. 74.
29 Trudel, pp. 56-57.
30 Trudel, p. 57.
31 Trudel, p. 57.
32 Trudel, pp. 58-59.
33 Website Francophonies canadiennes. Identités culturelles, Acadie, "Le curé de Néguac à Toronto."
34 Trudel, pp. 58-59.
35 Trudel, p. 82.
36 Trudel, p. 83-84.
37 Trudel, p. 79.
38 Trudel, p. 80.
39 Trudel, p. 89.
40 Trudel, p. 96.
41 Gaetan Gervais, ''L'Ontario français (1821-1910)'', in Cornelius J. Jaenen, Ed., Les Franco-Ontariens, Ottawa, Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa, 1993, p. 111.
42 Trudel, pp. 81, 89.
43 Trudel, p. 59. An Ontario Heritage Trust provincial plaque commemorating "The French Presence in Lafontaine" was unveiled in Lafontaine on July 14, 2007.
44 Trudel, p. 101.
45 Trudel, pp. 102-103.
46 The Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille) was a period of rapid change experienced in Quebec from 1960 to 1966. Jean Lesage and his Quebec Liberal party came to power in 1960 and introduced many reforms that collectively became known as The Quiet Revolution. The term was first used by an anonymous writer in The Globe and Mail, Toronto.
47 André Lapierre, L'Ontario français du Sud-Ouest: Témoignages oraux, Ottawa, Éditions de l'Université d'Ottawa, 1982, p. 229.
48 Trudel, p. 100.
49 Trudel, p. 105-109.
50 Trudel. pp. 111-112.
51 Trudel, pp. 113, 116-117.
52 Cabbagetown is located in the east-central part of Toronto. Its boundaries are defined by Parliament Street to the west, Gerrard Street to the north, Queen Street to the south and the Don River to the east.
53 Telephone conversation with the Sacré-Cœur rectory, July 26, 2004.
54 An Ontario Heritage Trust provincial plaque commemorates Fort Rouillé. This trading post was located near Scadding Cabin at Exhibition Place in Toronto. An example of the early French presence in Toronto, Fort Rouillé was built in 1750-51 to help strengthen French control of the Great Lakes region. The plaque text can be located on the OHT website.