Our Lady of Mount-Saint-Joseph Oratory

It all began in 1868, when Mother Marie-Anne Marcelle Mallet installed a statue of the Sacred Heart at the top of Mount Saint-Joseph, near Carleton-sur-Mer, in the Gaspé Peninsula (Quebec). At the time, the mountain was called Cap-Ferré. Ten years later, on July 17, 1878, when fishermen and farmers were going through hard times, it was decided to plant a seven-meter high cross on the mountain in order to draw God’s blessings on the fisheries and crops. As prayers were answered, the mountain became more and more a place of pilgrimage. A small statue of St. Joseph was also placed there.

A major fire destroyed part of the mountain in 1923, but the small statue of St. Joseph was spared. Two years later, the parish erected a new statue of St. Joseph, larger than the previous one. 

In 1935, on the initiative of the parish priest, Father Joseph Plourde, a fieldstone chapel was built. At first, only the cult of St. Joseph was celebrated there. Later, in the context of the Marian year of 1954, a devotion to the Virgin was added. The place then took the name of Our Lady of Mount-Saint-Joseph Oratory. A small residence named Hermitage was built near the oratory in 1955 to house a priest during the summer. As the number of pilgrims increased, it became necessary to enlarge the chapel in the 1960s. A beautiful fresco representing the crowned Virgin Mary adorns the back of the choir, and one can see, on the side of the epistle, the statue of Saint Joseph from 1925.