To be filed under ‘Flags I Never Knew Existed’: the Québécois heraldist Maurice Brodeur designed a flag commemorating the French explorer Jacques Cartier, founder of Quebec and Canada.
The banner was designed to hang as an ex-voto in the Memorial Basilica of Christ the King in Gaspé, conceived in the 1920’s as an offering of thanks for the four-hundredth anniversary of the claiming of Canada by Cartier.
The Great Depression brought the project to a halt, and the church was finally finished in 1969 as a modernist cathedral in wood — the only wooden cathedral in Catholic North America.
Was the flag ever actually executed? I don’t know, but I doubt it.
A lovely flag, and though I am not Québécois, I am inspired by it…which is what flags are supposed to do, yes?
Mark …
I agree with you. But have you seen the Carillon Sacré-Coeur (my favourite) and the original Carillon as well … take a look at the Wikipedia article on the flag of Québec: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Quebec .
But in my opinion, I think many of the Canadian provincial flags are beautiful and inspirational. I was baffled once by an Australian friend who was curious as to why I owned a Fleurdelisé in my collection; he actually used the term ‘uninspirational.’ I didn’t want to say anything about the flag of the Eureka Stockade … it was a little too obvious.
J’ai le drapeau en question
Chez moi, ça m’a été donné par l’ancien propriétaire de la maison Garneau à Québec.
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