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 pink Montreal Canadiens jerseys, and the track they’re singing is not a hymn however reasonably a chant that any sports activities fan will acknowledge: “Olé! Olé! Olé!”
Because the starting of the NHL playoffs, a whole bunch of hockey followers have packed into the pews for raucous Habs watch parties through which they yell, cheer, and sure, pray for victory.
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. Edouard Desroches | The Canadian Press
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 is nearly a faith, so we discover it really works splendidly,” stated Marjolaine Quintal.
The corporate has places of work within the church, and has been placing on live shows and sound and lightweight exhibits within the sanctuary for the final couple of years. A hockey match shouldn’t be a lot totally different, Quintal says. “There’s ceremony, there’s decorum, there’s ardour, there are turnarounds, and so they’re locations to assemble as nicely.”
The sport is proven on a 35-foot display, whereas DJs pump up the gang and lights are beamed on the historic church’s partitions.
As a lineup stretched across the block forward of Friday’s sold-out watch occasion, a fan wearing a pink 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 discuss with the staff’s jersey, in addition to the identify of the occasion.
The person, whose actual identify is David Ouellet, stated his “caricature” is all in good enjoyable. “It is to make folks giggle,” he stated.
A fan wearing a Montreal Canadiens themed cardinal cassock enters the Cathedral of Saint-Jean-l’Evangeliste to look at the Montreal Canadiens play towards the Tampa Bay Lightning throughout NHL playoff hockey motion in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., on Friday, April 24, 2026.Edouard Desroches | The Canadian Press
Antoine Dubé, standing in line, stated 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 stated they’d be praying for victory.
Isabelle Brulotte, the top of the group that manages the church — the Company Monseigneur Overlook — stated watching hockey in church buildings is not unprecedented.
“Church buildings have been the gathering locations of their neighbourhoods and cities, so folks would typically go hearken to hockey video games in church buildings as a result of they did not essentially have the cash to purchase a TV or a radio,” she stated in a current telephone interview.
Whereas La Cargaison is operating the present, the church can also be becoming a member of in, providing Habs-coloured blue, white, and pink candles that may be lit by anybody who needs to say a prayer for the “Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.”
Followers mild candles as they 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. Edouard Desroches | The Canadian Press
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 group and enchantment to youthful generations.
“Simply in 2025, 10,000 folks walked by means of the cathedral doorways, apart from for a spiritual celebration,” she stated. “That is rather a lot. And a few of them ended up coming again for mass.”
Not less than one Habs participant has given the church viewing events his seal of approval.
“It actually is (a faith),” stated star winger Cole Caufield, who just lately grew to become the primary Canadiens participant to attain 50 targets in a season since 1990. “That is a narrative that makes it make sense. I imply, simply everyone’s so dedicated and passionate. It doesn’t matter what form of life-style you reside, I believe everyone’s on the identical web page with their hockey staff.”
Matt Hoven, who holds the Kule chair in Catholic spiritual training 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 is not making an attempt to reply life’s largest questions,” he stated.
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. Edouard Desroches | The Canadian Press
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 typically 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 stated.
Extra just lately, legendary Canadiens goalies Patrick Roy and Carey Value have been dubbed “Saint Patrick” and “Jesus Value” by followers, and Oilers captain Connor McDavid typically seems as a Christ-like determine on T-shirts.
Hoven believes that sport may, at instances, fire up spiritual emotions. How else to elucidate folks lighting candles and praying for victory, he asks?
“It is humorous after we give folks alternatives, how God within the non secular will in some way come out,” he stated.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed April 26, 2026.