Saint-Enfant-Jésus du Mile-End Church

The Catholic Saint-Enfant-Jésus Parish remains, although no regular Masses have been held here since two thousand twenty-three. The building opens for individual events: in May two thousand twenty-six, concerts by the Centre des musiciens du monde were held inside.

The name is dedicated to Christ as a child. The first chapel, opened on this parish site in eighteen fifty-two, was already called the Chapel of the Infant Jesus. A stone church replaced it six years later. The first Mass in the new building was celebrated at Christmas—the day when Catholics commemorate Christ's birth.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, architect Joseph Venne enlarged the cramped church and completed the present façade. In nineteen oh nine, sculptor Olindo Gratton added figures that explained the building's dedication without an inscription. At the center stood the Infant Jesus, with two groups of angels on either side: the Star of Bethlehem and the Last Judgment. The first referred to Christ's birth, the second to the end of earthly history in the Christian view.

Gratton made large church statues from wood covered with copper sheets. This made the commission less expensive than bronze casting. From outside, the figures looked metallic, but water seeped between the sheets and destroyed the wooden base.

In nineteen seventy-eight, Bernard Mulaire, Gratton's great-grandnephew and a researcher of his work, climbed onto the roof to inspect his relative's work. One wing had already broken; the next strong gust could have sent it crashing down. Mulaire warned the parish and the archdiocese. The two side groups were taken down and hidden in the basements of Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral. The central figure of the Infant Jesus remained alone on the façade.

Almost three decades passed. In nineteen oh seven, local historian Kevin Cohalan was cycling through Mile End when he heard the restored church bells and learned that the building's one hundred fiftieth anniversary was approaching. Cohalan pressed for the angels' return and brought parishioners and the Société d'histoire du Plateau-Mont-Royal into the project. They raised ninety thousand Canadian dollars and handed the sculptures over to restorers.

When master craftsman Fabien Pagé opened the copper shell, the wooden core proved to be completely rotten. He removed it without deforming Gratton's old sheets and installed a metal frame inside. On June twelfth, two thousand fifteen, both groups were lifted back onto the façade after thirty-seven years away.

The central figure never went anywhere. Now Gratton's entire design is assembled around it once again: the Star of Bethlehem, the Infant Jesus, and the Last Judgment.