Saint-Romuald Church

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Photo credit: Kevin Ross

Without spires between 1904 and 1907, these were completed and blessed by Bishop Joseph-Ludger Guertin on December 8, 1907.

Spire of the Church of Saint-Romuald.

Photo credit: Andréane Beloin 2019, © Ministry of Culture and Communications.

The organ from the Casavant & Frères company was built and installed in 1912, at a cost of $6,720 and was guaranteed for a period of ten years.

NARRATOR (female voice)
Here stands the Saint-Romuald church, a building that constitutes a very important part of the City of Farnham’s heritage.

A first wooden chapel is said to have been built on this site in 1849, and included an adjacent cemetery.

NARRATOR (male voice)
Construction work for the first church began in 1861, and the building was blessed in 1865. However, construction of the presbytery only got underway two years later.

In 1901, an accidental fire completely destroyed the church. Indeed, it would seem that some men who were working on the vault accidentally set the building on fire with a lantern!

NARRATOR (female voice)
Mr. Joseph-Ovide Turgeon drew the plans for the church that stands before you, its floor plan represented a Latin cross. The construction was carried out from 1903 to 1905.

Interesting fact: Permission to exhume the bodies from the cemetery had to be obtained in order to build this second, larger church.

NARRATOR (male voice)
Do you have an idea about how the work was financed? If by any chance, you thought of a big raffle, well, you guessed right! The raffle was held in July 1904, and people could win prizes such as a silver basket, a dinner service, a gold watch, an armchair and the right to share a round trip ticket to the St. Louis World’s Fair in the United States. 

NARRATOR (female voice)
Starting in 1905, M. Ozias Leduc began creating thirty-four works of art, including the Stations of the Cross for the sum of: $2,965!

The church was inaugurated in December of the same year. It should be noted that for the first three years it stood without the spires that you see today. These were completed and blessed towards the end of 1907.

The Casavant & Frères organ, which still resounds today, was built and installed in 1912 and cost $6,720!

NARRATOR (male voice)
The cemetery grounds are less than a kilometre from the church, further away on rue Yamaska Ouest. The stone fence and gate were said to have been built around 1924 by Napoleon Roy, possibly the same person who was commissioned to produce the plans and specifications for the town hall after the fire that destroyed the downtown area in 1911. Today, only the lower walls on each side of the main entrance have been preserved.