Sainte Anne As Symbol of Literacy in Quebec Culture‪.‬

In visiting the churches of Quebec, one can hardly avoid an encounter with Ste. Anne. Undeniably, the mother of Mary and the grandmother of the Infant Jesus is one of the most popular and important saints throughout the province. Beyond that, she is also considered to be a powerful member of the divine community, responsible for more than fifty miracles in Quebec alone. Of these, thirty-four were healing miracles and twenty were sea rescues (Cliche 1988). When one considers that the first of these miracles goes back to 1658 during the construction of the original wooden church at Beaupre, when it was reported that a workman named Louis Guimont was cured of lumbago, one realizes that the history of Ste. Anne in Quebec is almost as old as the settlement itself. Through the many societies dedicated to Ste. Anne, such as the Ladies of Ste. Anne and the Congregation of Ste. Anne, devotion to Anne spread throughout the province, and indeed, throughout Canada. The purpose of this research is to explore the iconographic program of Ste. Anne in Quebec and to ask what this devotion to Ste. Anne tells us about the nature of the Quebecois people, particularly in light of Lord Durham's report. Although the center of devotion to Ste. Anne in Quebec is the basilica at Beaupre, Ste. Anne is found throughout the entire province. Most often, Anne is seen in scenes described as the Education of the Virgin. In fact, most of the churches in Quebec have some representation of this theme in painting, sculpture or stained glass. In order to understand the uniqueness of this iconographic program, it is necessary first to examine, if only briefly, the history of the devotion to Ste. Anne and, second, the ways in which Anne is more generally represented.