Hortus Conclusus at Le Grand Seminaire

Years ago, I visited Le Grand Seminaire, it is where my great great uncles, Fr. Martin Callaghan and his brother Fr. James Callaghan are buried. It is also where both men were educated in the late 1800s and I've always felt that attending this school was a great opportunity for both men; they were born into the working class, they became priests, educated men, and they served their community. A few years after this first visit I went on a tour of the seminary; it is located on Sherbrooke Street West near Atwater. From the street you can see the twin towers, built in the late 1600s, they were a place of safety when Indigenous people might attack the compound; it was where they would hide in the towers.

Note the image of Christ at the top left
of this image; this hortus conclusus corresponds
better to the garden at Le Petite Seminaire
in Old Montreal

 

On my first visit to Le Grand Seminaire  I walked around the grounds; there is a kind of enclosed garden or green space; you can see the stone walls that surround the place below. There is a rectangular pool, see below, that had been neglected. I suspect that access to the grounds is now more difficult as the old seminary has become quite a prestigious private high school. 

Le Grand Seminaire from Sherbrooke Street West






These twin towers can be seen from Sherbrooke Street West

Drawing of Le Grand Seminaire from 1600s

Front entrance; these photographs were taken in the 1990s

The grounds and parking lot

Historical photograph from 1905, the pond or basin in better days

Historical photograph from 1913



This is is the man-made pond on the grounds of the Grand Seminaire