The chapel of Port Saint-François

It was Abbot Jean-Baptiste Mathieu who had a mind to have a chapel built at Port Saint-François. Indeed, in the early 1940s, a great number of residents of Nicoled owned a cottage in that area and had to go back to Nicolet on Sundays to attend the mass. Therefore he managed to convince Albini Lafortune, bishop of Nicolet and priest, of the necessity to serve the summer vacationers of the Port. Photo credit: OTNY

It was on June 18, 1946 that the Corporation épiscopale catholique romaine in Nicolet acquired a restaurant located on the harbor’s road that belonged to Laurier Lemire at a cost of $1700. Work was carried out in order to transform the place and to welcome believers. The first mass was celebrated by the cathedral’s priest on Sunday, June 30, 1946 at 8:30 am. The chapel could accommodate up to two hundred people. Excluding a few weddings, no baptism nor funeral service was celebrated on site, since this mission wasn’t a parish in the canonical sense of the term, but a service road to the parish-cathedral. Over the years, the number of seasonal residents kept increasing so the chapel became too small. Photo credit: ASN

In the fall of 1957, a new land located on the Chemin du fleuve Ouest was purchased. This second chapel of 26 m x 12,8 m was built by the contractors Roland Duval and Henri Prince for $14 000. On July 13, 1958 Bishop Albertus Martin blessed it. The altar was the work of Émile Caron and the benches came from the cathedral of Nicolet, demolished in 1956 after the landslide on November 12, 1955. In 1962, the chapel was enlarged for $25 000. It was used for worship and as a recreation hall. Photo credit: OTNY