MONTREAL \u2014 The annual Portuguese Santo Cristo procession took place Sunday in Montreal\u2019s Plateau-Mont-Royal, drawing relief from the city\u2019s Portuguese community after a permit was refused last week.<\/p>\n
MONTREAL \u2014 The annual Portuguese Santo Cristo procession took place Sunday in Montreal\u2019s Plateau-Mont-Royal, drawing relief from the city\u2019s Portuguese community after a permit was refused last week.<\/p>\n
Organizing member Emanuel Linhares said the group behind the procession began the permit process on Feb. 12 and only received the refusal 10 days before the event.<\/p>\n
The procession is a long-standing religious and cultural tradition in Montreal\u2019s Portuguese community, said Linhares. It is rooted in devotion to “Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres”, a Catholic devotion originating in the Azores, part of Portugal, where annual spring processions honour a statue of Christ believed by devotees to be associated with miracles and protection, he said.<\/p>\n
Monica Monteiro, 46, said she’s been attending the procession almost every year since she was little. <\/p>\n
“I’m very happy it was not cancelled, I couldn’t believe it when I heard (the organizers) were having trouble.”<\/p>\n
\u201cFamily and friends gather here every year, it’s an occasion to see each other, celebrate our community, and dress up,\u201d said Monteiro, wearing a light blue dress. <\/p>\n
“We aren’t doing anything wrong,” said 87-year-old Irene Araujo, standing on the stoop where the procession passed by. She was holding a rosary in her right hand, letting it slip through her fingers. <\/p>\n
The march, Linhares said, is a silent street procession accompanied by philharmonic bands; it doesn’t include prayers or religious chants. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a religious march, but it\u2019s also a tradition; it has been happening for the past 60 years in Montreal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough cited Quebec\u2019s new law on public prayer, which prohibits organized public prayer in certain public spaces under the province\u2019s secularism framework introduced in April.<\/p>\n
Linhares said the decision caused him concern, given the size of the event. Each year, it draws at least 2,000 people from across Canada and the United States, as well as participants from the Azores, an autonomous Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic. <\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I got a little bit nervous for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Linhares said Montreal police confirmed on May 13 that the procession could go ahead, and that the borough acknowledged the police authorization for the event.<\/p>\n
Linhares said organizers plan to use the coming year to push for clearer, citywide rules on cultural and religious processions, arguing that interpretations vary between boroughs and should be made consistent across Montreal.<\/p>\n
The procession began around 4 p.m. at Mission Santa Cruz Catholic Church on Rachel Street, followed by a route through Montreal\u2019s Plateau-Mont-Royal, before returning to the church.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
Charlotte Glorieux, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 The annual Portuguese Santo Cristo procession took place Sunday in Montreal\u2019s Plateau-Mont-Royal, drawing relief from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-677600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}