ABSTRACT
St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Montreal: An
Architectural Analysis and History of Its Early Years
Donna McGee
1991
Architectural historians have stated that St. Patrick's
Church marks the first step in the understanding of Gothic building principles in the
Canadian Gothic Revival. The sometimes stated, sometimes implicit, qualification is that
the church must be judged in relation to the British movement. While the statement can be
considered to be true in a general sense, the history of the construction and the
background of the architect reveal that the qualification is both incorrect and
inapplicable. Stylistic analysis shows that St. Patrick's Church owes more to both French
Gothic from Normandy and local building traditions than the British Gothic movement
spearheaded by Pugin.
Secondary sources are unreliable for an accurate history
of the church as they contain information which was taken from erroneous contemporary
newspaper reports. Archival sources paint a clearer picture of the events, and disclose
that the church is the result of one architect's training and aesthetic sense, and who
perhaps complied with a Jesuit priest's suggestions for some details on the façade. This
clarifies the double attributions given in most texts on St. Patrick's.
Finally, St. Patrick's is placed in its historical
context, assessing criticisms of the church from its beginnings to the present.
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