Visit of the Relics of St. Thérèse: Largest Church Event in Canada Since 1984 Papal Visit

Tuesday, December 04 2001

(Ottawa – CCCB) As the Canadian visit of the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux comes to an end, organizers are calling it the most successful Church event in the country since the visit of Pope John Paul II to Canada in 1984. Since the visit began on September 16 in Vancouver, an estimated two million people have lined up, some of them for hours, to venerate the relics in churches, missions, convents, monasteries and pilgrimage sites.

After having traveled through Western Canada, the Prairies and Ontario, the relics of the “Little Flower” will end of the Quebec and Labrador portion of the visit tomorrow. They then move on to Atlantic Canada with visits to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, where the visit will end on December 17.

During the past five weeks, the reliquary has been traveling throughout Quebec and Labrador where an estimated 250,000 people have spent time venerating the relics of the French Carmelite nun who died at the age of 24 in 1897.