Thousands of ears have heard its chimes over the centuries. It has seen the invention of penicillin, electricity and the automobile. In Quebec, few things are as old as it, and it can now be found in the choir of the basilica.
We’re talking about a bell, of course, whose origins go as far back as the construction of the Montreal General Hospital in… 1692. That’s just 50 years after the founding of Montreal. And 67 years before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
Admiring this precious gift from the Grey Nuns (founded by Marguerite d’Youville), one can’t help but be fascinated by the incredible journey it has taken to get here. Could this bell ever have imagined that it would end up in a place where other bells now ring in its place?