Photo courtesy of Biblioteque et Archives nationales Quebec

While attending the Eucharistic Congress in Montreal in 1910 Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky made his first visitation to Ukrainian settlers throughout the continent. m.

At the Eucharistic Congress of London, in 1908, the Committee offered Mgr Bruchesi the opportunity to hold the Congress of 1910 in his archiepiscopal city. For a year the various committees at Montreal worked energetically in preparation for the event. Pius X sent as legate a latere His Eminence Vincenzo Vannutelli, Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina. All the bishops of Canada and the United States and a large number from Europe were present in person or sent their representatives. Three cardinals, one hundred and twenty archbishops and bishops, between three and four thousand priests, and more than a half million lay visitors came to Montreal. The literary reunions of the French-speaking section were held at the house of the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament, Laval University, and the National Monument, while those of the English-speaking section took place at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Windsor Hall, and Stanley Hall. More than a hundred studies on the Blessed Eucharist — in relation to dogma, moral, history, discipline, pious practices, devotions, and associations — were read and discussed. Each seance was presided over by a bishop. Special reunions for priests, men and women, and for the young were held with great success.

A splendid gathering of twenty thousand young men received the papal legate with enthusiasm; thirty thousand school-children passed in review before him. It is estimated that a hundred thousand men marched in procession on the occasion of the solemn closing of the Congress, Sunday, 11 September, in the presence of 700,000 spectators. The streets of the city were magnificently decorated for the occasion with triumphal arches, draperies, and flags, under the direction of the committee of architects. On the side of Mont Royal, in the Parc Mance, an immense park in the form of an amphitheatre, a monumental altar had been erected; there Mass was celebrated in the open air on 10 September, and there on the following day, the great procession terminated, when nearly 800,000 Christians assembled to welcome Jesus in the Eucharist held in the hands of the cardinal legate, blessing Montreal, Canada, America, and the whole world. Besides the literary reunions already mentioned, two great meetings were held on Friday and Saturday evenings at Notre-Dame, where speeches in honour of the Christian Faith and the Blessed Sacrament were delivered by: Cardinal Vannutelli, Cardinal Logue, Archbishops Bruchési, Bourne, and Ireland, Bishops Touchet and Rumeau, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Sir Lomer Gouin, Hon. Thomas Chapais, Judge Doherty, Deputy Tellier, Judge O'Sullivan, Deputy Henri Bourassa, M. Gerlier, and many other distinguished ecclesiastics and laymen of the Old and New World. These memorable displays of eloquence made a deep impression in the souls of the twelve to fifteen thousand auditors. Also in the church of Notre-Dame, at the first hour of Thursday, 8 September, as a religious prelude to the literary seances, an imposing midnight Mass was celebrated, at which thousands of men received Holy Communion, the Mass having been preceded by an hour's solemn adoration under the direction of members of the Association Adoration Nocturne of Montreal. The ceremony of the official reception of the papal legate, the special Mass on Thursday, 8 September, in favour of the numerous religious communities of Montreal, and also the high Mass on Sunday, 11 September, sung by the cardinal legate, at which Cardinal Gibbons and Mgr Touchet preached, all took place in the cathedral of St. James. At the open-air Mass on Saturday, 10 Sept., sung by Mgr. Farley, the preachers were Mgr O'Connell and the Rev. Father Hage.

What specially distinguished the Congress of Montreal from any previous Eucharistic Congress was the official participation of the civil, federal, provincial, and municipal authorities. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company had sent a representative to meet the legate in Rome, and His Eminence crossed the ocean on board one of the Empress liners of the same company. At Quebec the Federal Government yacht met the cardinal and his suite, and conveyed them thence to Montreal. All along the route, the population on the banks of the river greeted the legate as he passed. At Montreal, despite most inclement weather, an immense crowd gave him an enthusiastic reception. Mayor Guérin presented addresses of welcome in French and English. During the congress, the Federal Government, the Provincial Government, and the City of Montreal each held a reception for the legate and other official personages. Under the immediate direction of Archbishop Bruchesi and the more remote direction of the Permanent Committee of the Eucharistic Congresses, presided over by Mgr Heylen, Bishop of Namur, four great committees laboured to organize the Congress of Montreal: Committee of Works: president, Canon Gauthier; vice-presidents, MM. Lecoq, McShane, Perrier, and Auclair. Committee of Finance: president, Canon Martin; vice-presidents, Sir Thomas Shaughnessy and Hon. L. J. Forget. Committee of Reception: presidents, Canon Dauth and Father Donnelley; vice-presidents, Canon Roy and Father Troie. Committee of Decorations and Procession: president, Canon Le Pailleur; vice-presidents, Fathers Belanger, Laforce, Piette, Rusconi, O'Reilley, Martin, Deschamps, Heffernan. To these committees there had been added for press purposes a special committee presided over by Father Elie J. Auclair.

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Sources:

Catholic Encyclopedia:Montreal (New Advent)
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10547b.htm

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