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.

Notes on St. Michael's Church, Mile End, Montreal (two)

Apologies to the photographer; I found this photograph on Facebook and will credit
the photographer or remove it on request

As in a previous visit, the church was open to the public during the day. Inside the church, there was only a student guide, an older man washing the floors, and myself. I sat in one of the pews close to the altar and thought about Father Luke; his great accomplishment was certainly building and running this church. St Michael’s has a seating capacity for 1400 people and when additional seating had to be used, folding chairs were placed in the center aisle. St. Michael’s was once the largest English-speaking parish in the province of Quebec with 1,809 families attending the church and close to 15,000 parishoners.

Father Luke Callaghan was a unique man; indeed, he was a visionary. He helped raise the money to build St. Michael’s, he was instrumental in the choice of architecture for the church, as well as the choice of stained glass windows and interior decorations. Looking at the paintings by Guido Nincheri that decorate the interior of St. Michael’s, you will see some of the most interesting church art in Quebec. There is also the marble facing on the walls, and a painting on the interior of the church dome of St. Michael the Archangel. It seems no expense was spared in the building and interior decoration of this incredible church!

I used to think that St. Michael’s was in some ways a folly of Father Luke’s, as the church is a copy of Hagia Sophia (Greek for Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), Turkey. However, it isn’t unusual to copy famous churches on a reduced scale. For instance, Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral, located on Boulevard-René Lévesque (formerly Dorchester Boulevard) near the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, is a smaller version of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

Hagia Sofia began as a church in Constantinople; it was rededicated in 537 AD and was (and probably still is) one of the largest churches in the world. In 1453 Constantinople and Hagia Sofia fell into Muslim hands. Constantinople became Istanbul and Hagia Sofia became a mosque. In 1935, Kemal Ataturk, the reformer of modern-day secular Turkey, converted Hagia Sofia into a museum. Recently Pope Benedict XVI visited Istanbul and Hagia Sophia and the building still resonates with historical and spiritual importance.

There must be a “story” as to why Father Luke decided to build St. Michael’s church in a Greek Orthodox design. There is really no other church in Quebec like St. Michael’s with its turret just to the right and behind the poured concrete dome. The student guide informed me that the turret, which is 160 feet high, was originally the church’s bell tower but this use had to be abandoned as they were afraid the turret might collapse. The copper dome outside has also recently been cleaned, so it now has a shiny, almost golden appearance when reflecting the bright summer sun.

Inside of the church, on the inside of the dome, as one stands and looks up, there is a painting of Michael the Archangel, large wings behind him, standing on the dragon that he has just slain, The painting is magnificent, set in a circle in the dome, then there are two outer circles: the first outer circle seems to contain many faces whose significance is not apparent. Then, after some patterned decoration, there is a third circle of angels each with a distinct personality. Also, a repeated pattern of decoration is found throughout the church, the pattern is a painting of a dragon with a sword thrust through it, no doubt the work of St. Michael. The art is original and inspired and there are many other delightful embellishments throughout the church.

Additionally, there are two very large half rosette stained glass windows facing each other on the east and west sides of the church. There is a kind of shamrock design to the eight outer windows, then nine large windows are set between these, and a final shamrock at the bottom, all in a huge semi-circle. The same window design is found on either side of the church, it is non-representational, and almost art nouveau in appearance. A traditional stained glass window would have been out of place in the church.

If you stand at the front of the church, at the altar, you can look across the whole expanse of the church and pews, to the second floor balcony where the organist would sit, and more pews, and then a large round stained glass window of eight shamrock patterns circling a center design. When the sunlight enters the church these window are a veritable glowing fountain of light. It is unfortunate that the church itself, perhaps because of its size and that the windows are set so high on the walls, is in relative darkness most of the time, and this gives it a rather gloomy feeling. The altar is unfortunately also in darkness because of the absence of natural lighting, but I assume there is auxiliary lighting that can illuminate the entire church.

Again, as you stand at the altar and look across the church, seeing the balcony and the main floor, there is a painted decoration on the wall between the floors, of a repeated pattern of a dragon impaled by a sword. The sword, of course, also suggests a cross and the dragon or serpent reminds one of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, symbolic of man’s fallen state. The interior condition of the church, the painted walls and ceiling, is still very good, suggesting that the art may be frescoes, or alternatively that there has been little water or other damage over the years. The dimensions for size of the windows is suggested by the size of the dome: the half dome measures 52 feet in diameter, the full dome 75 feet in diameter, with 24 windows.

On the main floor, at the entrance to the church, there are three doors, with a glass semi-circle of shamrocks over each door, almost like transoms. If you stand just inside of the church entrance and look upwards at the ceiling, you will see written in Latin some names, among them “Pope Benedicto XV”, “Archbishop Paulo Bruchesi”, and “Luca Callaghan.” Other names can also be found in the other groupings of names on the ceiling.

Father Luke Callaghan was a great administrator, a pastor who guided his many parishoners and constructed and then ran St. Michael’s for twenty-one years, from 1910 to 1931. I am not personally convinced that copying Hagia Sofia was the greatest idea, but it was certainly an original idea. Sitting in St. Michael’s that July day, I had a growing admiration for Father Luke. His sights were set on greatness, and he accomplished a great feat in building St. Michael’s Church. He was a scholar, had earned a Ph.D. in Rome, and had an important posting at the Archbishop’s Palace in Montreal on LaGauchetiere Street. He is a man who accomplished much because of his intelligence, his commitment to hard work, his sense of responsibility to his congregation and the Church. Not as colourful as his older brother, Father Martin Callaghan, he was nevertheless a man of great substance and determination.

The man who saved St. Mary's Hospital

When I was growing up I often heard about the three Callaghan priests, Frs. Martin, James, and Luke. The oldest priest was known familiarly as Fr. Martin, he was the first Montreal-born pastor at St. Patrick's Basilica; when he died he was buried in a plain wooden casket and, as his funeral cortege moved through the streets, people bowed their heads and acknowledged that he was an exceptional and humble man of God; they all loved Fr. Martin. Fr. James, the second born, was less known; the youngest, Fr. Luke Callaghan, was prominent but not as beloved as Fr. Martin. 

The Callaghans were proud of all of their children. John Callaghan, their father, was involved in religious organizations in Montreal and, coincidentally, he was a longtime friend of my great great grandfather, Laurence Morrissey, a relationship that predates the marriage of his daughter to Laurence's son, Thomas. The Sulpician order educated these three young men and they each became prominent figures in the Montreal community. Born into the working class their intelligence was recognized by the Church and they were given every opportunity to make something of themselves; they were given the greatest gift, an education. 

There is a saying, that one pays something forward (defined as "when someone does something for you, instead of paying that person back directly, you pass it on to another person instead.") Back in the 1920s and 1930s, and before, some members of the Irish Catholic community in Montreal wanted to build a hospital, and they did, it is St. Mary's Hospital which is also a McGill University teaching hospital. It was Fr. Luke Callaghan who saved the hospital when it was in jeopardy of being cancelled; he paid forward the good fortune that he had received from others.

Father Luke Callaghan

A Notman photograph of St. Michael's Church, 1934; Fr. Luke Callaghan
was the pastor here and he helped build the church.

The mission of founding a hospital originated with Sister Helen Morrissey (no relation) in 1908; she was born in Pickering, Ontario, and she was joined in this work of founding a hospital by Dr. Donald Hingston, an eminent Montreal surgeon and a member of an eminent Montreal family, his father had been a surgeon and mayor of Montreal. The first location of St. Mary's Hospital, chosen by Mother Morrissey, was Shaugnessy House, on then Dorchester Blvd West, and it opened on 21 October 1924; it is now the location of an architectural centre and museum. 

Shaugnessy House was soon recognized as being too small to serve its purpose and work began raising funds for a new much larger building. But the main hurdle was Mother Morrissey, she had her own vision of the new hospital, and that vision was that it would be under her control. She was also convinced of her own correctness, she was domineering, intelligent, articulate, and formidable. She was a literate person, she had written a book on Ethan Allen, and she knew what kind of hospital she wanted; soon, the business men fled saying Mother Morrissey was unworkable with. The men could do nothing with Mother Morrissey, she would not budge from her belief in what she wanted and her moral authority in getting it.

The original St. Mary's Hospital located at Shaugnessy House

St. Mary's Hospital in 2014

It seems that the men, prominent business men and politicians, cowered in the presence of Mother Morrissey, or they threw up their hands and were prepared to let the whole project become history. Thomas Morrissey was married to Mary Callaghan, a sister of the three Callaghan priests, and when Thomas died in 1916 Mother Morrissey visited the family in their working class home. Also present were Mary Callaghan's brothers, the priests. So, when the hospital project went off the rails due to Mother Morrissey, who did they call? They called the only man who had the authority and connections to do an end-around Mother Morrissey, they called Father Luke Callaghan, pastor of, at the time, the largest Irish congregation in Montreal, St. Michael's Church on St. Viateur Street in Mile End. Perhaps Fr. Luke had a chat with Mother Morrissey, he had the diplomacy to deal with all sorts of people and to get them onboard; he had seen through the building of St. Michael's church, a church that is architecturally unique in the city. Having lost her position of authority in the hospital project, Mother Morrissey seems to have disappeared from her involvement with the hospital. Soon, a million dollars was raised for the construction of a new hospital. The new hospital, located on Lacombe Avenue near Cote des Neiges Road, opened in 1934, where it is still located.

Here is an excerpt from Dr. J.J. Dineen's St Mary's Hospital, The Early Years: 

Canon Luke Callahan was named by Dr. Hingston as the man who, through his intervention with the Archbishop during the 1929 closure, saved the hospital. Father Callahan had persuaded the Bishop to sanction the removal of Rev. Mother Morrissey and bring in the Grey Nuns. Many of the Irish clergy had been strongly in favour of turning over the hospital to Rev. Mother Morrissey or another religious nursing order. The community in general was dissatisfied with the doctor-dominated board and it was during this state of general discontent, that a new board of prominent businessmen and politicians was established prior to the first major successful drive in July 1931.

I tell this story because some years ago someone very close to me was very ill, at one point she almost died while in hospital, but doctors and nurses rushed to her bedside and by the next morning she was still alive, but barely. Every year I expected it to be her last but it is now eight years later and each year is a blessing, it is a gift and to whom do I owe this gift? To the doctors, nurses, administrators, and staff at St. Mary's Hospital. God bless them all! And to whom do I owe this hospital? To Mother Helen Morrissey, Dr. Donald Hingston, and Fr. Luke Callaghan who helped keep the hospital project alive; he paid it forward and I, his great, great nephew, am one of the many recipients of his gift. Then, in June 2021, I had cancer, it required surgery; I was referred to the chief surgeon at St. Mary's and, within a few weeks, I was operated on and here I am, writing this and once again thankful to the doctors and nurses at St. Mary's Hospital and Fr. Luke for saving it from the misguided control of Mother Morrissey. By the way, I have no special privilege at the hospital; everyone is treated equally with dignity and care.

And this is what "paying it forward" looks like from someone who has received the generous gift of those who paid it forward. I hope everyone can be generous and give something to a reputable charity like the St. Mary's Hospital Foundation. Fr. Luke, when he helped save St. Mary's Hospital, had no idea that it was descendants of his own family that would be saved by his intervention with Mother Morrissey. 

Merry Christmas to you all!

Note: Sister Helen Morrissey's book, Ethan Allan's Daughter, was published in Montreal in 1940.

The Luke Callaghan Memorial School

When I visited Luke Callaghan Memorial School in the fall of 1998 it had already been closed as a school; the building is just a block from St. Michael's Church. At the time I visited it was the location of various art and public service organizations. It had been an English-language school in the Catholic School Board of Montreal; it closed (like many other English-language schools in Montreal) due to a decline in student numbers caused by the Quebec government, the children of immigrants had to enroll in the French sector schools. Luke Callaghan was the priest who oversaw the building of St. Michael's Church and then he was the pastor at the church until his death in 1931. Luke Callaghan is my great, great uncle. There is more on him and his two brother on other pages of this blog, or click on www.morrisseyfamilyhistory.com.

Luke Callaghan Memorial School in 2009

Luke Callaghan Memorial School in 1927

Graduating class from Luke Callaghan Memorial School, 1930s, copied from Facebook

Graduating class from Luke Callaghan Memorial School, 1930s, copied from Facebook


Below: that's St. Michael's Church (on St. Viateur West), just a block away on Clarke Street, as seen from the Luke Callaghan Memorial School.

View of St. Michael's Church from Luke Callaghan Memorial School

Possibly Clarke Street, near Luke Callaghan Memorial Church

Luke Callaghan Memorial School

Luke Callaghan Memorial School

Luke Callaghan Memorial School

The following, from  http://memoire.mile-end.qc.ca/fr/ecole-luke-callaghan/ website, is of interest:

Luke Callaghan School, originally named St. Michael's, was the school for the Irish Catholic community in Mile End. Opened in 1907, it was initially located on rue Boucher, at the corner of rue Drolet. The Sisters of Saint Anne teach the girls and the Marist Brothers, the boys.

After the construction in 1915 of the new St. Michael 's Church at its current location, rue Saint-Viateur Ouest, the school moved in turn. Classes were first held in rented stores on rue Saint-Viateur until the opening in 1922 of the current building, located on rue Clark, between Saint-Viateur and Bernard. The Sisters of Saint Anne still teach girls there, who use a separate entrance. After the withdrawal of the Marist Brothers in June 1925, the parish priest, Luke Callaghan, entrusted the teaching of the boys to a community from Ireland, the Presentation Brothers. The school was renamed Luke Callaghan Memorial after the priest's death in 1931.

The departure of the Irish population from Mile End during the 1950s and 1960s led to a transformation of the school clientele. The secondary level moved to the new Pie ​​X school, located in Ahuntsic, in 1960. The Presentation Brothers left the premises in 1968, because the children of the Italian community in the neighborhood replaced the Irish. The strong Italian immigration of the 1950s and the baby boom meant that the school was quickly overcrowded. Classes must be transferred to French schools in the neighborhood, but they do not meet demand. This situation led to demonstrations against the management of the English sector of the Catholic school board by Italian parents during the spring and summer of 1968.

But the Italian community in turn deserted the Mile End for the suburbs; in addition, the Charter of the French language (law 101), promulgated in 1978, ensures that the children of immigrants now go to French school. During the 1980s, it was the neighboring primary school, Lambert-Closse , which would become the multi-ethnic school in the district. The Luke Callaghan school was empty, and when in 1983 the number of pupils fell below the 200 threshold, the English sector of the Commission des écoles catholiques de Montréal (CÉCM) decided to transfer them to the Nazareth school , located on rue Jeanne-Mance, between Laurier Avenue and Saint-Joseph Boulevard. A petition of 600 names, which denounces the influence on children of pornography present in bars and cinemas of the adjacent avenue du Parc, does nothing about it.

The building now houses an Early Childhood Center (CPE) and the Educational and Pedagogical Resource Center, which offers training for adults. The facade of the building, at risk of losing bricks, has been covered with a net since 2015 pending restoration.

Photographs of St. Michael the Archangel Church, Montreal

There is much that could be said about St. Michael the Archangel Church; it is unique in its design, its history, and it is still operating as a church. Here, I just want to give some photographs of the church, most of which I took in the early 2000s. If you stand on Mount Royal, in Mount Royal Cemetry, near the graves of Mordecai Richler or Boris Brott, you can see St. Michael's in the distance, it is a prominent feature on the Montreal landscape.

Rosette window above main entrance

St. Michael's Church on St. Viateur

Guido Nincheri must have felt like Michelangelo when he painted this

About this painting, Fr. Luke Callaghan wrote: 

The dreadful fall of the angels is ingeniously represented: from the four corners of the dome they are hurled into space studded with stars, stripped of their perfect beauty and their spiritual charm; their draperies, torn by the terrible cataclysm, reveal the animal hidden below. They are enveloped in flames that lick the base of the cornices of the arches and the vertical bands that support the dome.

The original statement in French:

La terrible chute des anges est ingénieusement représentée : des quatre coins du dôme ils sont projetés dans l'espace constellé d'étoiles, dépouillés de leur beauté parfaite et de leur charme spirituel ; leurs draperies, déchirées par le terrible cataclysme, révèlent l'animal caché en dessous. Ils sont enveloppés de flammes qui lèchent la base des corniches des arcs et les bandes verticales qui soutiennent le dôme.

I took the following photographs inside St. Michael's Church when it was open to visitors. 

 

That's my wife sitting in the pews...

That's me beside the young woman who was at the door
welcoming visitors to the church

Sr. Helen Morrissey and the establishment that opposed her

A few days ago I accompanied a family member to St. Mary’s Hospital. While I waited for their appointment to end I enjoyed, as always, sitting in the hospital cafe drinking a cup of coffee and observing the people there, in particular an old couple who spoke lovingly to each other, not about anything in particular, it was how they spoke to each other that expressed their love. And then I looked at historical photographs on the café’s walls, the elite were there, there was even a photograph of future American President John F. Kennedy and his wife who had attended a hospital ball, raising money for St. Mary’s, in the 1950s. And then I thought of Sr. Helen Morrissey who had originated the idea for the hospital. Her aggressive approach alienated board members and my great great uncle, Fr. Luke Callaghan, was called in to dissuade Sr. Helen from continuing her campaign for her vision of the future hospital; the hospital's board were about to resign because of her. It occurred to me that she must have realized what she was up against, it was the social and financial elite of Montreal Irish society; she subsequently withdrew from the hospital’s planning committee. And then this photograph (below) stood out for me, it shows the president of the hospital’s board of  directors and Canada's Governor General, and other financial and ecclesiastical leaders, laying the cornerstone of the new hospital. How could she  compete with them, a nun, a woman, and without allies in high places? This is not to say that she had not dealt with similar people in her position of pharmacist at Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal hospital, but she was a spiritual person, not a business person, and why spend time dealing with contentious issues that brought out the negative parts of her personality? After she was forced off of St. Mary’s Hospital planning committee she continued working at Hôtel-Dieu and she wrote a book on Fanny Allen, who entered the religious life at the same hospital where Sr. Helen Morrissey worked, and Fanny Allen was also a pharmacist there. I wondered at how easily it seems that Sr. Helen acquiesced to abandoning her concept of the future St. Mary's Hospital; she was an old family friend of Fr. Luke, she had been there in 1915 when his older brother Fr. Martin Callaghan died, and she shared a family name with Fr. Luke's sister, Mary Callaghan, who had married Thomas Morrissey (my great grandparents). I think Fr. Luke was also a member of the elite, he had built the enormous St. Michael's Church in Mile End and it rivalled St. Patrick's Church for Sunday attendance for Montreal's Irish population. Sr. Helen has been made out to be a harridan, aggressive, bossy, domineering, demanding, even frightening for these poor wealthy professional men! In fact, all of the adjectives used against intelligent women who aren't afraid to express themselves are used against her. She was difficult for the men because she disagreed with them; however, this isn't to say that her plan for the new hospital was the right one, in retrospect we can see that the Board of Directors had a vision for the hospital that worked best. My point is that Sr. Helen has been demonized and her better qualities--intelligence, vision, perseverance, spirituality--are ignored, and we think of her as being fairly unpleasant because that is the way the establishment elite portrayed her. Both Sr. Helen and Fanny Allen turned away from the secular world and were dedicated to the religious life. I, too, viewed Sr. Helen Morrissey in this negative way--it took Fr. Luke Callaghan to whip her in to shape! and I was proud of what he did!--and, I hope, this is now somewhat corrected. 

I guess Sr. Helen Morrissey wasn't invited to this event...

St. Mary’s Hospital from av Jean Brilliant 

The av Lacombe entrance to the hospital 

St. Mary’s Hospital, Paying it Forward

St. Mary's Hospital, 20 August 2014 

Walking down the hall at St. Mary’s Hospital, I said a silent thank you to Fr. Luke Callaghan for saving the hospital. Back in the 1930s Dr. William Hingston, who founded the hospital, asked Fr. Luke for help dealing with Sr. Helen Morrissey (no relation to me), the nun who had initiated the idea of a hospital for Montreal’s Roman Catholic population; however, Sr. Helen had her own rigid ideas of how the new hospital should be run, and she proved an obstreperous and formidable opponent as she alienated the all-male board organizing the new hospital. She almost derailed the hospital before it had even opened. As a last resort, and exasperated with Sr. Helen, Dr. Hingston called in Fr. Luke, who was the pastor at St. Michael’s Church in Mile End, to see what he could do about the situation. It was because of Fr. Luke’s intervention that fund raising and building the new hospital could proceed. Soon, the new St. Mary’s Hospital opened and it has been serving Montrealers of all faiths ever since.     

It occurs to me that at this time of the year, a time for giving and thanks, we might remember those people from the past who made our present lives possible. Fr. Luke Callaghan, who is also my great great uncle, helped pay forward the gift of St. Mary’s Hospital. This hospital saved my wife’s life ten years ago; my two grandsons were born here; and the doctors, nurses, and technicians at St, Mary's gave me truly exceptional care just three years ago when I was diagnosed with cancer, they saved my life. 

I would be a terrible ingrate if I did not contribute to St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation. I think of Fr. Luke Callaghan and the words of Dr. William Hingston, “In my opinion, Luke Callaghan saved St. Mary's.” Of course, Fr. Luke probably never heard of the phrase “paying it forward” and he had no idea that his intervention to save the hospital would also help his family’s descendants ninety years later, but that’s exactly what he did; we, too, can pay forward something of what we have received. Be generous, be giving, and pay forward what we have been given for future generations.

Notes: Quotation from Dr. Hingston is from Allan Hustak's At the Heart of St. Mary's, A history of Montreal's St. Mary's Hospital Center, Vehicule Press, 2014.

I also recommend Dr. J.J. Dinan's St. Mary's Hospital, The Early Years, Optimum Publishing International, Montreal and Toronto, 1987.

Biography of Father Martin Callaghan

A drawing of Father Martin Callaghan when young

Father Martin Callaghan in 1903

Photo montage of the pastors at St. Patrick's Church, Montreal;
Fr. Martin Callaghan, top middle

Father Martin Callaghan

Father Martin Callaghan was born on 20 November 1846 in Montreal. He attended the Petit Seminaire du College de Montreal (1860-1868) and he studied at the Grand Seminaire from 1869-1872. He was ordained a priest in 1872 and the following year he asked his Bishop to be allowed to enter the Sulpician Order for further training. The Sulpicians are a "secular order", dedicated to training priests, but are not allowed to recruit priests to their order. Sulpician priests are referred to as "The Gentlemen of St. Sulpice" and are addressed as 'Monsieur'. Father Martin served as an auxiliary professor at the College de Montreal from 1872-1874. He served as vicar at St. Patrick's Church from 1875-1902; from 1902-1908 he was the pastor at St. Patrick's. He resigned from St. Patrick's in 1908 after thirty-five years service and was designated confessor of the Freres des Ecoles chretiennes. He also served at Notre Dame Church from 1908 to 1915 where he occasionally worked as a minister. Father Martin was dedicated to helping the poor and the working class, the class from which he came. He was also renowned for converting people to the Catholic faith; a church biography of Father Martin states, "par le nombre des convertis estimes par les statistiques les plus moderees a 3,000," which includes "protestants, juifs, Negres, Chinois".

Here is a short booklet containing the text of Fr. Martin`s sermon, "The shamrock, or, Ireland's threefold love"; a "beautiful sermon" preached on St. Patrick's day in St. Patrick's Church, Montreal, March 17th, 1877.

In 1915, upon returning to Montreal from Baltimore where he assisted at a funeral for another priest, Father Martin fell ill; this soon developed into congested lungs. Father Martin died on 10 June 1915 in his sixty-ninth year. His brother, Father Luke Callaghan, sang the mass at Father Martin's funeral. One booklet describes the funeral: "A large cortege of mourners accompanied his remains to their last resting place beneath the chapel of the Grand Seminary on Sherbrooke Street."

Father Martin was also an authority Canadian on folklore and for a number of years he was the owner of the Fleming Windmill, an historical landmark located in Ville LaSalle.

His obituary, published in the Montreal Star of 11 June 1915, states that, 'Father Martin,' as he was affectionately known to many, 'was a true Irishman in warmth of heart and breadth of sympathy. His gifts to charitable movements were countless, and many of his benefactions were known only to himself. The poor and needy always found him a ready listener to the story of their troubles.'

Here is an article on Fr. Martin Callaghan from 1915, I have just added the original image of this newspaper article below:

LATE FATHER CALLAGHAN

BELOVED PRIEST,

REV. M. CALLAGHAN

HAS PASSED AWAY

 

Formerly of St. Patrick’s

Well Known Throughout Province

 

Good Violinist

And Wrote Music

 

Authority on Canadian

Folklore—Gave Much

to Charity

The Reverend Martin Callaghan, former…. and [one of the] best known English speaking priests in the Province of Quebec, died last evening at the Hotel Dieu, after an illness of two weeks. He was sixty-nine years old.

Father Callaghan, whose career in the priesthood was long and useful, was born in Montreal, November 1846. He was educated, under the Rev. Father Mayer and the Sulpicians on Sherbrooke Street where after completing his studies he was professor of English for one year, having among his pupils Archbishop Bruchesi of Montreal and Archbishop Langevin of St. Boniface, and many men now prominent in the public life of this Province.

 

ST MARY’S CURATE

Father Callaghan studied theology under Rev. Fathers Levigne and Colin (?), and was ordained priest by the late Bishop Bourget. He was admitted a member of the Sulpician community in Paris, and began his ministry in Montreal as a curate of St. Mary’s under Father Campion. After one year at St. Mary’s he was appointed to St. Patrick’s under Father Dowd, and afterwards Father Quinlivan, succeeding the latter as pastor of St. Patrick’s. He served for a year under the Sulpician regime under Archbishop Bruchesi.

In December, 1907, after four years service as pastor of St. Patrick’s, Father … resigned to be…pastor…

Father Callaghan was well known as a musician. He was a violin pupil of Oscar Martel, violinist to the late King of Belgium. He was the author of many musical compositions, a number of which were rendered for the benefit of Montreal charities at various times. A deep student of Canadian folklore, his lectures on this subject had been enjoyed by thousands. “Father Martin,” as he was affectionately known to many, was a true Irishman in warmth of heart and breadth of sympathy. His gifts to charitable movements were countless, and many of his benefactions were known only to himself. The poor and needy always found him a ready listener to the story of their troubles.

 

GAVE AWAY LAND

A year ago he gave a piece of land in the parish of Lachine, which he had purchased some time before as a site for an English-Catholic college, to the Presentation Brothers, for a novitiate. The land was valued at $50,000. Later he gave the same community a site at Longueuil.

 As a missionary priest Father Callaghan met with great success, his converts being numbered by thousands. He took special interest in work among the Chinese of Montreal. In collaboration with the Rev. Father Montanard, now serving with the French army, he prepared a Chinese-English catechism.

 His brother, the Rev. Luke Callaghan, parish priest of St. Michael’s, was with him at the time of his death, as were his sister Mrs. Farrel, of Lachine, and Rev. Sister Morrissy, and assistants of the parish of Notre Dame. 

Fleming Windmill, Montreal, 1900's

On the Fleming Windmill (click on this link for the original text):

 

Farmhouse and Fleming windmill, Lasalle, near Montreal, QC, about 1870

In 1815, William Fleming, a Scottish immigrant, built a stone house and a wooden windmill on his property in Lower-Lachine, facing Lac Saint-Louis, near Chemin du Roi (present-day LaSalle Blvd), which was a major thoroughfare and transportation route at the time. He ground barley and rice for local farmers who sold to the Montreal breweries. In 1816, Fleming decided to grind wheat. But this was in direct conflict with the Seigneurial rights of the Sulpician Seminary in Montreal, who had the monopoly on all flour-producing mills since 1663, requiring farmers to have their wheat ground by Sulpician mills for a fee. The Seminary, insisting on their rights, ordered Fleming’s mill to be demolished. Fleming’s lawyers replied that the Seminary had no legal power to rule in Canada. Their status was given by the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice de Paris, which had no authority in Canada. In 1822,the King’s Bench ruled in favour of the Seminary and ordered non-regulation mills to be demolished. Fleming appealed the decision. Three years later, the eight judges of the Court of Appeal were unable to reach a majority decision, which constituted a victory for Fleming, since, in the absence of a decision, the Montreal Seminary could not force him to demolish his mill. William Fleming took advantage of the victory and decided to rebuild the mill in stone in 1827. He signed a building contract with the mason, William Morrison to build the stone windmill that stands to this very day. From 1827 to the 1880s the ownership and operation of the mill remained within the Fleming family. When William Fleming died in 1860, his son John took over operation of the mill. When activities ceased in the 1880s, the mill’s condition rapidly deteriorated. In 1892, the mill lost two of its blades and the rotating mechanism collapsed. At the turn of the century, the roof and the mechanism had fallen inside the building. After John Fleming’s death, his widow, Isabella Wylie bequeathed the property to Reverend Martin Callaghan, who later transferred the property to Reverend E.P. Curtin. In 1914, Curtin donated the mill to a religious community known as the Presentation Brothers of Ireland. In 1928, The Wellcome Foundation acquired the mill and the surrounding land from the Presentation Brothers of Ireland with the intention of establishing a pharmaceutical company in the area. 

Around 1930, the mill and its internal mechanism were restored. As a result of the company’s efforts, the mill was saved from total destruction. In 1947, the City of LaSalle acquired the site from Burroughs Wellcome. Municipal authorities were more concerned about residential and industrial development than about heritage protection, and many old houses were demolished to make room for more modern buildings. In 1976, the Cavelier-de-LaSalle Historical Society convinced the city to apply to the Ministère des Affaires Culturelles du Québec, in order to have the mill recognized an official heritage site. They felt that their application was justified even if the millstones and the interior mechanism had disappeared without a trace. In 1982, the city of LaSalle adopted the mill as its official emblem and continued to put pressure on the Quebec government to accelerate the processing of the heritage recognition application. Finally, in 1983, the mill was officially classified as an archaeological heritage site by the Ministère des Affaires Culturelles du Québec. After being restored in 1990, it became a historical interpretation centre, open to the public every weekend during the summer. The Fleming Mill is the only windmill of Anglo-Saxon design with a device for turning its sails windward, still standing in the Province of Quebec.

Note: Edited 18 October 2025. This original 1915 newspaper article regarding Fr. Martin's death is below. 

Revised: 13 November 2025