On your way to Old Quebec, stop off at Quebec City’s Saint-Charles-Garnier church to discover the life and message of Blessed Dina Bélanger, affectionately known as “Canada’s Thérèse of the Child Jesus”.1 Learn more about this musician, religious, writer and mystic, who died of tuberculosis in 1939 at the age of 32, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1993, becoming “the first ‘saint’ born in Quebec City, the cradle of Christian and French civilization in America”.2
Discover her musical compositions and the writings she left us, which constitute “one of the purest jewels of twentieth-century spiritual literature”.3
This unique exhibition offers a visual, auditory and sensory experience that allows visitors to discover the life of Dina Bélanger while exploring a significant period in Quebec history.
The Dina Bélanger Immersive Journey tour also offers a better understanding of the status of women in the early 20th century, the challenges faced by those who chose to make a living from their art, and the decisive role played by women’s congregations in educating girls and building modern Quebec.
Recorded narrations, accompanied by soundscapes and musical compositions by Dina Bélanger, guide visitors along the route, recreating the historical and spiritual environment that marked the life of this woman also known as “the little beggar of love”.
1 Léon Cristiani, Dean of the Faculty of Letters at the Catholic University of Lyon, Perdue en Jésus-Christ, 1950, p.XV.
2 Ghislaine Boucher, Ph.D., Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume XV (1921-1930).
3 François-Marie Léthel, Carmelite professor of theology at the Teresianum in Rome, presentation of Dina Bélanger’s new autobiography, 1995, p. 17.
