Souvenir Du Quebec

I recently received an collection of religious souvenir pencils from Quebec that I wanted to share (thanks Silvie!). 

St. Joseph's Oratory

The pencil below is a souvenir of St. Joseph's Oratory. This church is located on Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec.  It is a National Historic Site of Canada and is Canada's largest church, with one of the largest church domes in the world.  The Oratory is the highest building in Montreal, rising more than 30 metres above Mount Royal's summit. It is one of the few buildings that violates the height restriction under the municipal building code of Montreal, which limits the height of any building, including skyscrapers, from surpassing the height of Mount Royal.

Below is another pencil related to St. Joseph's Oratory. This one includes a photo of Saint André Bessette, C.S.C. (1845-1937), commonly know as Brother André. 

Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII was elected to the papacy on 2 March 1939. He was the Pope until his death in 1958.  This pencil was probably made to celebrate his election. Pope Pius never visited Canada... the first pope to visit Canada was Pope John Paul II in 1984.

Shrine of Our Lady of the Cape

The final pencil is a souvenir pencil from the Shrine of Our Lady of the Cape in Cap du La Madeleine. Cap du La Madeleine is on the shore of the St. Lawrence River halfway between Montreal and Quebec City in Trois-Rivières, Quebec.  The history of this shrine goes back to 1634 when the first Jesuit missionaries arrived what was French Canada.  The pencil shows the date AD 1714,  which was when construction began on a stone church which replaced the original small wooden church.

Now that I have pencils from two of the national shrines in Canada, I'll have to see if there are vintage souvenir pencils from others to complete this mini-collection. I know I have seen a pencil from Saint Anne de Beaupré.