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15 November 2011

PizzaQ! Gauche au droit, Who the heck are these Holy Guys? (Because -- blow me down! -- they're NOT The Apostles!)

Click on Cathedral-Basilica to enlarge.

Like a bolt from the blue, a few weeks ago I got an e-mail from the University of Toronto Press asking permission to use the above photo in an upcoming high-class coffee-table book (and its e-book avatar), which will be published (Good Lord willin' and the crik don't rise) this coming Spring entitled "Religions of Canadians."

In 2008 I trekked to Montreal on a train, stayed a night or two in the hotel above the big train station, and then hopped the 23-hour train to Halifax.

By total accident, this was the view out my hotel room window.

It's a Roman Catholic Cathedral, so those guys on the roof are The Apostles, right?

Who the heck else could they be? The Toronto Bluejays? The Rockettes dancing an Easter pageant? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?

I never gave it a second thought.

Until today.

I had suggested that the editor also identify and credit the sculptor, and she did.

Well, blow me down and knock me over with a feather! They're NOT The Apostles!


* * *


Hiya A***** --

Your identification of the sculptor led me to surf

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph-Olindo_Gratton

and discover that the statues are NOT the Apostles, but are

À la cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde (Montréal)

    Saint Antoine de Padoue et l'Enfant-Jésus (1898)
    Saint Vincent de Paul et un enfant trouvé (1893)
    Saint Hyacinthe tenant une statuette de la Vierge (1899)
    Saint Thomas d'Aquin (1900)
    Saint Paul (1898)
    Saint Jean l'Évangéliste (1893)
    Saint Jacques-le-Majeur (1892)
    Saint Joseph et l'Enfant-Jésus (1899)
    Saint Jean Baptiste (1899)
    Saint Patrice (1899)
    Saint Ignace d'Antioche (1893)
    Saint Charles Borromée (1899)
    Saint François d'Assise (1898)

(I found no indication of left-right order, of who is which.)

This headache at the altar of accuracy now belongs to you and T******* F**. In my defense, I was just a camera-toting tourist passing through, and woefully ignorant of hagiography to boot.

Bob


* * *


Which brings us to today's PizzaQ -- 13 slices of French-bread Pizza.

Using your (hopefully superior) knowledge of the Christian and Roman Catholic Saints, can you identify these statues correctly, from left to right? (Gauche au droit, I guess.)
DO NOT TELEPHONE 
OR E-MAIL THE CATHEDRAL. 

That's cheating, and it's very possible they won't know for sure. The most recent statue went up in 1900, and 111 years is a lot of time to forget which saint is which. 

They probably won't let you ask the Archbishop directly. And if they let you, he will probably insist you chat en francaise/Quebecois.

So this PizzaQ is really a test of how expert you are at Christian hagiography. For those who didn't snore or read Green Lantern comic books through Sunday School or Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, there should be lots of little clues in the statues to identify each one. That's always been the deal with Christian art -- it's filled with signs and symbols and tipoffs to know who's who.

I already screwed up this Holy Rooftop Lineup ignorantly and badly, so surely there exists a spiritually educated reader who can do better than I did. 

And 13 slices of French Bread Pizza is not chopped liver!

9 comments:

PatFromCH said...

Hm, I thought Thomas of Aquin was a rather chubby bloke, yet I can't see a fat monk up thee.

My namesake is the young bloke with the staff (St. Paddy and the snake story).

Are we allowed to use a different photo with a different angle ?
Given that I once wanted to study medieval hitroy I think I will have a more detailed go at this.

Oh, and please do let us know when that book comes out !

Vleeptron Dude said...

Vleeptron's only prohibition is not to bother the poor Archbishop of Montreal about this.

And this is quite the remarkable public statuary, so there must be many more photographs -- some of which might be thoughtful enough to have better views and clues.

James J. Olson said...

You already owe me so much pizza for previous questions that I'm not going to take a stab at this one. Will be interesting to see the answers though.

James J. Olson said...

Darrick and I honeymooned at this hotel, on the same floor and just two doors down from the room/suite where Yoko Ono and John Lennon held their famous bed-in. There was a little brass plaque on the door.

Phroso said...

gauche au droit

- saint Antoine de Padoue et l'Enfant Jésus (1898)

- saint Vincent de Paul et un enfant trouvé; (1893)

- saint Hyacinthe tenant une statuette de la Vierge (1899)

- saint Thomas d'Aquin (1900)

- saint Paul (1898)

- saint Jean l'Évangéliste (1893)

- au centre, saint Jacques-le-Majeur (1892)

- saint Joseph et l'Enfant Jésus (1899)

- saint Jean Baptiste (1899)

- saint Patrice (1899)

- saint Ignace d'Antioche (1893)

- saint Charles Borromée (1899)

- saint François d'Assise (1898)

13 patron saints of the parishes of Montreal

Phroso said...

I'm also pretty sure from gauche au droit it's John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Phroso said...

I now declare myself the winner. Bob will have to buy another freezer if this keeps up.
According to his vleepatude's rules only the correct order is needed to win. No proof.
I know and posted the correct answer and am therefor the winner. Even if it takes the powers that be an eternity to verify the results.
This wasn't even a bit of a head scratcher and I let it sit out there for days. Without being asked The Archman posted it online in the most obvious place possible.
Blog me.

Phroso AKA Dead-Legs

PatFromCH said...

I thought the General Rules of The PizzaQ Scheme as a whole state that no googling, checking the web etc is allowed. I was under the impression that the goal was to identify the figures with the semantic clues and personalised characteristics each statue has. And despite the fact that I am an Atheist I still think I can do this.

Can Phroso speak french ? Well, I can, because I am swiss and was forced to learn that language. Of course it would have been easy to hop over to the official site but that was not what this PizzaQ was all about as I understand it.

Hell, someday I will come to New England, visit Boston and then head north to claim all that Beer and Pizza. We could all get together, the whole commenter team and tour the Pizza jonits in Northhampton...

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