The sound of singing rises up from the packed pews of St-Jean-l’Évangéliste Cathedral in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. However the congregation is wearing blue, white and purple Montreal Canadiens jerseys, and the tune they’re singing isn’t a hymn however fairly a chant that any sports activities fan will acknowledge: “Olé! Olé! Olé!”
For the reason that starting of the NHL playoffs, a whole lot of hockey followers have packed into the pews for raucous Habs watch events during which they yell, cheer, and sure, pray for victory.
The director of content material and communications for La Cargaison, the nonprofit multimedia group behind the present, says the curiosity has exceeded expectations.
“Folks in Quebec and Canada collect collectively round hockey video games — it’s nearly a faith, so we discover it really works splendidly,” mentioned Marjolaine Quintal.
The corporate has workplaces within the church, and has been placing on concert events and sound and light-weight exhibits within the sanctuary for the final couple of years. A hockey match shouldn’t be a lot completely different, Quintal says. “There’s ceremony, there’s decorum, there’s ardour, there are turnarounds, and so they’re locations to assemble as effectively.”
The sport is proven on a 35-foot display screen, whereas DJs pump up the group and lights are beamed on the historic church’s partitions.
As a lineup stretched across the block forward of Friday’s sold-out watch celebration, a fan wearing a purple priestlike garment invited followers to kneel in entrance of him to share a prayer that started with invoking the late Canadiens nice Maurice “Rocket” Richard.
“Our rocket, who’s in heaven, might your expertise be shared,” started the person, who calls himself “St-Flanelle,” after a time period used to consult with the crew’s jersey, in addition to the title of the occasion.
Get breaking Nationwide information
Get breaking Canada information delivered to your inbox because it occurs so you will not miss a trending story.
The person, whose actual title is David Ouellet, mentioned his “caricature” is all in good enjoyable. “It’s to make folks snort,” he mentioned.
Antoine Dubé, standing in line, mentioned he got here for the ambiance and to share the sport expertise with different folks. He and a number of other different attendees instructed The Canadian Press they weren’t common churchgoers. All mentioned they’d be praying for victory.
Isabelle Brulotte, the pinnacle of the group that manages the church — the Company Monseigneur Overlook — mentioned watching hockey in church buildings isn’t unprecedented.
“Church buildings had been the gathering locations of their neighbourhoods and cities, so folks would usually go hearken to hockey video games in church buildings as a result of they didn’t essentially have the cash to purchase a TV or a radio,” she mentioned in a current cellphone interview.
Whereas La Cargaison is operating the present, the church can be becoming a member of in, providing Habs-coloured blue, white, and purple candles that may be lit by anybody who desires to say a prayer for the “Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.”
Brulotte says she’s acquired a couple of calls from individuals who really feel the sports activities broadcasting is inappropriate or irreverent, however insists that holding exhibits falls inside the church’s mandate to serve the neighborhood and attraction to youthful generations.
“Simply in 2025, 10,000 folks walked by the cathedral doorways, apart from for a non secular celebration,” she mentioned. “That’s rather a lot. And a few of them ended up coming again for mass.”
At the least one Habs participant has given the church viewing events his seal of approval.
Followers watch the Montreal Canadiens play the Tampa Bay Lightning throughout NHL playoff hockey motion within the Cathedral of Saint-Jean-l’Evangeliste in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., on Friday, April 24, 2026.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Edouard Desroches
“It actually is (a faith),” mentioned star winger Cole Caufield, who not too long ago grew to become the primary Canadiens participant to attain 50 objectives in a season since 1990. “That’s a narrative that makes it make sense. I imply, simply all people’s so dedicated and passionate. It doesn’t matter what form of way of life you reside, I feel all people’s on the identical web page with their hockey crew.”
Matt Hoven, who holds the Kule chair in Catholic non secular schooling at St. Joseph’s School in Edmonton, related to the College of Alberta, disagrees that sports activities are a faith. Whereas each create belonging, id and rituals, “hockey isn’t making an attempt to reply life’s largest questions,” he mentioned.
However Hoven, who has written a number of books concerning the intersection of sports activities and faith, together with one about hockey-loving priest David Bauer, agrees that the 2 cultures usually overlap. In Quebec, whereas hockey was initially seen as an English-speaker’s sport, it got here to be embraced and promoted by Francophone clergymen, he mentioned.
Extra not too long ago, legendary Canadiens goalies Patrick Roy and Carey Worth have been dubbed “Saint Patrick” and “Jesus Worth” by followers, and Oilers captain Connor McDavid usually seems as a Christ-like determine on T-shirts.
Hoven believes that sport may, at instances, fire up non secular emotions. How else to clarify folks lighting candles and praying for victory, he asks?
“It’s humorous after we give folks alternatives, how God within the non secular will in some way come out,” he mentioned.