Toronto is one of the most dynamic cities to visit in North America, often described as “New York run by the Swiss.” It has all of the big city attractions of New York, Chicago, London, L.A., but in a much more orderly setting. It has one of the largest live theatre scenes in the English speaking world, a tonne of world-class festivals over the summer season, and a number of year-round attractions including the CN Tower, the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and Ripley’s Aquarium.
Although Toronto – or York as it was first known – was established as a Protestant English city in the Canadian frontier, it has no shortage of significant Catholic heritage sites spread across the city’s diverse neighborhoods. A visit to Toronto should also be paired with a visit to Martyrs’ Shrine where many of the North American martyrs were killed, about 100 miles north of the city.
Roncesvalle/High Park
In the west end of the city, next to High Park and the Roncesvalle neighborhood is the Church of St. Vincent de Paul, part of the Toronto Oratory. This is a magnificent church which continues to embody the spirit of the Oratorians as envisioned by their founder, St. Philip Neri and also regularly offers mass in the extraordinary form. This stretch of Roncesvalle Avenue is bustling with Eastern European storefronts and small family restaurants, serving everything from hand made perogies and soups, to cabbage rolls and sausages. It borders one of Toronto’s finest green spaces, High Park, complete with a small zoo and one of the largest playgrounds in Ontario. In the summer months, one of the most popular evening activities is to attend a performance of Shakespeare under the stars at the park.
Bathurst/Fort York and King Street West
King Street West between Bathurst and out to the Liberty Village neighborhood is quickly becoming one of Toronto’s trendiest streets, full of unique restaurants, bars and shops. Just north of Bathurst and King Streets is the Church of St. Mary. One of the oldest parishes in the City of Toronto, it was built on part of the military garrison lands that extended from nearby Fort York. It originally served the boatloads of Irish immigrants arriving in the city fleeing the potato famine in Ireland, and over time came to serve the Ukrainian, Polish and Portuguese communities. The Portuguese immigrants from the Azores arriving in the 1950s and 1960s transformed the parish and it became a center of Portuguese-Catholicism in Canada. At the core was the replica of the miraculous wooden statue of Ecce Homo brought over from the Azores and paraded through the streets of Toronto annually, to this day. A block south at King and Bathurst is a cluster of trendy eateries and shops, worth visiting and exploring before continuing along your way.
Chinatown
Toronto boasts one of the largest Chinatowns in North America and just beyond the Chinatown neighbourhood and adjacent to the Art Gallery of Ontario – one of Canada’s premier art galleries – is St. Patrick’s church. The church has been administered by the Redemptorist Order since 1881, to serve the German-speaking population in Toronto. The first Redemptorist priests in North America were the Viennese students of St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, who dreamed of spreading the Redemptorist Order from northern Europe to North America. St. Patrick’s is home to the National Shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, where you can pray before one of the replica icons of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that was brought from Rome in 1881 (see page 224). There is also a weekly devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help on Wednesdays at noon, 5:00pm, and 7:00 pm.
Yonge-Dundas Square
Yonge-Dundas Square is Toronto’s equivalent to New York’s Time Square, complete with flashy electronic billboards, shops, restaurants and outdoor performance spaces. Tucked just behind the square is the heart of the Catholic Church in Toronto, the city’s landmark cathedral: St. Michael’s Cathedral. In the beautifully restored cathedral, you can venerate the displayed relics of several of Catholicism’s most famous saints along the narthex and south transept, including St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Jude, and St. Anthony of Padua.
In the crypt, you can pray before the tomb of Bishop Michael Power, Toronto’s first bishop whose cause for canonization has been initiated. While he is most often remembered for his martyrdom, he was also one of the most important church builders in nineteenth century Canada. He spent most of his time as a parish priest in the country side around Montreal and the rougher frontier towns along the Ottawa Valley, he worked closely with Bishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal to restructure and unite ecclesial governance in Canada, and he was ultimately given the task of going out to the “edge of civilization” in Upper Canada, responsible for a diocese of far flung and independent minded parishes that were under constant threat from the Protestant majority in Upper Canada and spanning a territory that was greater in size than the United Kingdom. He worked tirelessly to bring order to this frontier diocese and impose discipline on his priests, to provide for the unique needs of the French, German, and Irish settlers, to evangelize and work among the Native Peoples in his diocese amidst aggressive inroads by Methodist and other Protestant evangelists, and he was an early proponent of ensuring that Catholics could get publicly funded Catholic education. He also succeeded in bringing the Jesuits and the Loretto Sisters from Ireland into the new diocese.
Above all, Bishop Power was tireless in his ministry, especially to the refugees of the Irish potato famine who swelled the city’s population. In 1847 alone, over 40,000 Irish passed through Toronto aboard the so-called “coffin ships” full of disease-ridden passengers. City officials quarantined these refugees in the “fever sheds” and it was here that Bishop Power would toil for hours, ministering to the sick and dying. He himself contracted typhus and died at the young age of 43.
Also buried in the crypt is Captain John Elmsley, who was the city’s first famous convert from Anglicanism. His father had been the second most powerful official in British Canada and this was wholly unexpected in a deeply Anglican society. John Elmsley worked very closely with Bishop Power on most of his endeavors, especially those related to Catholic education.
Bloor-Yorkville
The Bloor-Yorkville neighborhood is anchored by the Royal Ontario Museum – famous for its dinosaur collection, medieval armor, Egyptian artifacts, and a re-created bat cave – as well as the high end boutique shops, restaurants and tiny laneways that make this Canada’s closest equivalent to Beverly Hills.
Across from the Museum and nestled in the heart of the beautiful campus of St. Michael’s College (part of the University of Toronto) is St. Basil’s Church. It was built in 1856, making it one of the city’s oldest churches, and is a serene setting for prayer amidst the bustle of the city. Its nineteenth century stations of the cross paintings are actually identical copies to those found in the cathedrals of Indianapolis and Sydney, Australia.
Distillery District
Old Town Toronto is an up and coming area of the city that has gone through extensive revitalization over recent years. It is here that you will find the city’s very first parish church, St. Paul’s Basilica. The expansive church has been carefully restored and from there, it is a short walk to one of Toronto’s most unique attractions: the Distillery District. The District is a wonderfully preserved set of Victorian-era buildings and cobblestone streets. It was once one of the largest whisky distilleries in the British Empire and it is now filled with unique stores, restaurants, cafes, galleries, and an assortment of festivals and events throughout the year.
Click here to extend your journey to include a visit to Martyrs’ Shrine north of Toronto.
CATHOLIC CONCIERGE 
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