En route for the 400th Anniversary of the "Vow of 1624"

PLEA FOR THE RENEWAL OF THE "VOW OF 1624" TO SAINT JOSEPH

Canadian vow of consecration to Saint Joseph in 1624. Saint-Joseph Oratory of Quebec

I took it upon myself to write this petition after having heard several people express their deep desire to see this renewal occur, a desire with which I wholeheartedly join. My ten years of work at the service of Saint Joseph and the Holy Family as director of the Center for Research and Documentation (now closed) of the Oratory of Mount Royal have allowed me to measure the abundance of graces that Canada has benefited from this great saint.

We have […] made a great solemnity, where all the inhabitants were present, and several (Natives), by a vow that we made to Saint Joseph, whom we chose as patron of the country and protector of this newborn Church. We are sending Father Irénée (Piat) to France, who will communicate with you. (Father Joseph Le Caron, Récollet, Quebec, late July - early August 1624) Letter quoted by Father Chrétien Leclercq, Premier Établissement de la Foy dans la Nouvelle-France, Paris, 1691, p.287.

The "vow" of 1624 consisted of choosing Saint Joseph as patron of Canada, and protector of the local Church in its beginnings.

It was made by the Recollects Joseph Le Caron, Nicolas Viel and Gabriel Sagard, at a time of great difficulty, shortages of foods, almost famine, insecurity and serious threats of all kinds to which the fifty or so original inhabitants of the small colony of Quebec were exposed. To the point that Champlain had decided to take his young wife, Hélène Boulé, back to France, setting the departure on August 15, 1624 on a ship carrying the letter.

It is important to note that the “great solemnity” did not take place on March 19 of that year, because at that time the Récollets were still on mission far from Quebec. It was upon their return from Huronia during the summer, with a flotilla of 60 canoes loaded with skins for the trade, that the Récollets had planned the “grand solemnity” of the vow: after July 16, 1624, the date of their return in Trois-Rivières and in Quebec, but before August 15, the shipping date of the signed document. In these current times of a global pandemic which threatens the health, life and security of humanity as a whole, and our societies, we strongly feel the need and the urgency to call, more than ever, on the power of intercession and protection of Joseph, Holy Husband of the Virgin Mary and Protective Father of the Child Jesus. Couldn't a privileged means in our days be the renewal of the vow and the choice made in 1624 by the first missionaries?

Emergencies call for quick reactions. By their initiative throughout the crisis, the Récollets set a founding milestone everlasting through history; making it easier for us to follow in their footsteps. At the time, there was no diocese in North America. There was just a "nascent Church".

The future first bishop of Quebec, François-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, had just been born the year prior to the vow. He came to Quebec 35 years later, in June 1659, as Vicar, but he immediately assumed the patronage created by the Récollets, as an indisputable achievement, as he shows in this invocation for a dispatch in mission, imploring the blessings of "Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sovereign Shepherd of souls" and concluding:

We beg Him very humbly for his merits, by the intercession of his Most Holy Mother, of Blessed Saint Joseph, Special Patron of this nascent Church, of all SS. Guardian angels of the souls under our charge and of all the holy Protectors of Christianity. (Bishop de Laval)

For almost four centuries, there have been renewals and numerous confirmations of this patronage at different levels of hierarchy, the first being that of the Jesuits who had taken from the hands of the Récollets the torch of evangelization in Canada, especially among the Hurons.

Saint Joseph presents Canada to Mary of the Incarnation. Saint-Joseph Oratory of Quebec.

• Already in 1634, on his way to Huronia and faced with growing difficulties, Father de Brébeuf had recourse to “the power of the glorious Saint Joseph, to whom God inspired me, in despair for anything, to promise twenty Sacrifices (masses) in his honour” (Relation of 1634). A recourse that he had the opportunity to renew with perseverance: "I was so many times completely upset and desperate, until I had particular recourse to Our Lord Jesus, for whom and his glory we undertook this painful journey, and to respect a vow taken to the glorious Saint Joseph." (Relation of 1635)

• In 1637, the festive celebration of patronage was resumed and organized for the first time on March 19 by the Jesuits Lallemant, Brébeuf and others, who launched a tradition for decades to come… "each blessing God for having given us for protector, the protector and guardian angel, so to speak, of Jesus Christ his Son." (Relation of 1637)

• Récollets missionaries had directly received from the Holy See, before their departure from France in the spring of 1615, complete canonical power to evangelize in Canada by the placet of Pope Paul V of May 26, 1615; his successor Pope Urban VIII had ratified in 1637 the reality and validity of the vow by granting “plenary indulgences for the days of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin and of our glorious patron and protector Saint Joseph” (Relation of 1637).

• In 1703, the first Ritual of the diocese of Quebec officially classified, among the “immovable feasts”, that of “Saint Joseph, first Patron of the Country”.

• In 1834, renewed and final ratification of the bishops' request: Pope Gregory XVI proclaimed Saint Joseph "First patron of Canada" and authorized the diocese of Quebec to celebrate the feast on March 19.

• In 1876, when the episcopate asked the Holy See to proclaim Saint Anne patroness of the province of Quebec, a note could be read revealing this continuity in the mandate of the Archbishop of Quebec: “without prejudice, however, to the title owned since 1624 by Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as patron of Canada as a whole.“

RENEWING THE "VOW OF 1624"?

The wish of the Recollet Fathers sprang from the heart of the emergency, a cry from their hearts and their deep faith in the whirlwind of vicissitudes of the moment. Their wish was a spontaneous outburst, shaking up forecasts, planning, procedures, as the Apostles in the boat, battered by the storm, cried out in fear: “Lord, do you not mind that we perish?” (Mk 4,38)

The major crisis of 2020 is undoubtedly an other opportunity to have recourse to Saint Joseph on Canadian soil, to demonstrate once again the Christian faith, confidence, hope and charity shown by the best of our predecessors, following their example: renewing the vow and again choosing Saint Joseph as Patron and Protector while imploring healing and cessation of the evil that afflicts our society.