Notes on St. Michael’s Church, Mile End, Montreal (one)

Fr. Luke Callaghan

Harvey Shepherd, writing in The Gazette, on 26 July and again on 21 September 2003, informed readers of tours of St. Michael’s Church available to the public. St. Michael’s is a landmark in Montreal, visible from several miles away at the lookout on Mount Royal facing towards the Plateau and the east end of the city. The church is built in the style of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. St. Michael’s is a large domed structure with an entrance façade and minaret on the east side to the rear of the church building. Shepherd writes, “Back in the early 20^th century, it [St. Michael’s] was said to be the largest English-speaking parish in Quebec, with more than 1,800 families or close to 15,000 parishoners, mainly Irish in origin.” Of course, after reading this article with its offer of a tour, I soon visited St. Michael’s Church, which I had so far only seen from the outside. As you enter, on the far left side on the ceiling, is Father Luke’s name written in Latin. St. Michael’s now serves a predominantly Polish congregation. The church was built in 1914-1915 with funds largely raised by Father Luke Callaghan.

Aristide Beaugrand-Champagne, the architect of St. Michael’s, achieved what was then highly innovative in his design and construction of the dome of the church. The magnificent dome is constructed with reinforced concrete, a first in Montreal until duplicated, but on a much larger scale, at St. Joseph’s Oratory on Queen Mary Road. The dome at St. Michael’s has a diameter of 23 metres and is flanked by two half domes; covering the nave that reaches 40 metres from the centre of the dome are two arches with a diameter of 16.5 metres each. The inside of the church seats 1400 people and in Father Luke’s day simultaneous services were held in a large basement auditorium, seating over 1200 people, because of the capacity attendance inside the church. Incidentally, Beaugrand-Champagne also designed the award winning Chalet de la Montagne, facing south on Mount Royal and overlooking the downtown of the city. Now called Parc du Mont Royal, the design of this prominent park, inaugurated in 1876 and located in central Montreal, is by Frederick Law Olmstead who also designed Central Park in New York City. Original art work at St. Michael’s was created by Guido Nincheri, who was born in Prato, Italy, in 1885. In 1914 Nincheri moved to Montreal where he and his wife lived until his death. Nincheri’s first large commission in Montreal was to create the frescoes and stained-glass windows that decorate the dome and walls of St. Michael’s Church. The stained-glass windows, circling the entire circumference of the dome, flood the entire church with light and colour. When standing on the upper pulpit overlooking the interior of the church—as I have done—one is overwhelmed with sunlight and the magnificence of this building. Later, between 1928 and 1951, Nincheri designed the interior of the prestigious St-Léon-de-Westmount Church on Boulevard de Maisonneuve in Westmount. Although Nincheri lived for a few years in the United States he considered Montreal his home and was buried at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery after his death in 1973. St. Michael’s Church deserves some much-needed restoration work and the church could then be used, at least part-time, as a concert hall. It is a remarkable edifice—both magnificent and majestic—and well worth visiting on a Sunday morning when open to the public. I am grateful to Mr. Kevin Cohalan, the Executive Director of the Volunteer Bureau of Montreal, who was instrumental in organizing the summer-long open-house at St. Michael’s which was an invaluable opportunity to visit the church pretty much at one’s own convenience during daytime hours. I was given, generously, carte blanche to go where I liked in the church on my two visits there last summer.