"Sport is part of culture and a good way to learn about another country… To discover why people are so passionate about it, it's like, 'Tell me what your sport is and I'll tell you who you are,' " he said.

Bauer, who is from Switzerland, has lived in France, French Polynesia and Washington, and said discovering sport has been a way to discover society.

Another example of religious behaviour is an expectation of sacrifice, Bauer said.

Course assignments include studying media coverage of the Canadiens, reading chapters from the book La religion du Canadien de Montréal (co-edited by Bauer and Jean-Marc Barreau), and writing essays.

We really want to see what everyone wants to say.

In Prof. Olivier Bauer's class at the Université de Montréal, worshippers can argue that their team is their religion.

Campbell stuck out his hand. He got a slap in theface.

here are moments when life gets in the way, when sports and thereal world collide

Good to his word, though, Richard returned the next season to lead the Habs to the Stanley Cup championship, the first of five consecutive championships they would win before Richard retired in 1960 — a convincing vindication.

Forty-five, maybe 60 seconds later — at 9:11 p.m. — the bomb exploded

“If Richard’s name was Richardson you would have given a different verdict.”

players did not wear helmets or mouth guards

“The Babe Ruth of hockey,”

He had become the only player to score 50 goals in the 50-game season

They want to arrest Richard for assault, to throw him in jail for the night.

Then Richard snatches a stick from the ice and swings it wildly at Laycoe.

The tension between the two rivals in the six-team NHL

It went on most of the night with fears of a repeat a few hours later as it grew dark again

137 arrests

Rocket said he warned the linesman three times to let him go before he finally clocked the official. 

Sticks were high, fists flew, blood often smeared the ice, and the owners thought this was all manly and a great way to sell tickets.

it was crucial to know how violent the National Hockey League was in those days.

For two days she kept her bed, with a watchful eye over everything, directing all the household affairs.

As for myself, singing mass makes me hungry beyond anything you could believe."

"No, Samuel; what the good God does is always right

SINCE

At noon Maria came out to the door-step and gave a long call to tell them that dinner was ready. Slowly they straightened up among the stumps, wiping away with the backs of their hands the drops of sweat that ran into their eyes, and made their way to the house.

In the Province of Quebec there is much uncertainty in the spelling and the use of names. A scattered people in a huge half-wild country, unlettered for the most part and with no one to turn to for counsel but the priests, is apt to pay attention only to the sound of names, caring nothing about their appearance when written or the sex to which they pertain. Pronunciation has naturally varied in one mouth or another, in this family or that, and when a formal occasion calls for writing, each takes leave to spell his baptismal name in his own way, without a passing thought that there may be a canonical form. Borrowings from other languages have added to the uncertainties of orthography and gender. Individuals sign indifferently, Denise, Denije or Deneije; Conrad or Courade; men bear such names as Hermenegilde, Aglae, Edwige.

One morning three days later, on opening the door, Maria's ear caught a sound that made her stand motionless and listening. The distant and continuous thunder was the voice of wild waters, silenced all winter by the frost.

"You cannot shoot devils with a gun," objected his mother. "But when you feel the temptation coming, seize your rosary and say your prayers."

The great three-decked stove stood in the centre of the house; the sheet-iron stove-pipe, after mounting for some feet, turned at a right angle and was carried through the house to the outside, so that none of the precious warmth should be lost.

His voice was strong and true, and he used the full volume of it, singing with deep fervour; but ere long his eyes began to close and his chin to drop toward his breast. Driving always made him sleepy, and the horse, aware that the usual drowsiness had possession of his master, slackened his pace and at length fell to a walk.

English women

there being no part of their bodies which did not then endure its torment.

There were plenty of fine Sturgeon, which helped people to live; but there were few if any salmon

They proceeded to vent their rage on those two Fathers; for they took them both and stripped them entirely naked, and fastened each to a post. They tied both of their hands together. They tore the nails from their fingers. They beat them with a shower of blows from cudgels, on the shoulders, the loins, the belly, the legs, and the face,—there being no part of their body which did not endure this torment.

The long-delayed fleet finally arrives, August 23 and 24; it brings a new missionary, Charles Albanel. Another ship had, in March, left France for Canada; but, as it has not arrived, it is accounted lost; the Jesuits thus incur a loss of 4,000 livres.

if some woman passes that way, they may secretly enter her womb, and that she may give them life again

Likewise if it is a poor person, his dreams are held in very little consideration.

they vie with each other in cutting the body, tearing off the fleshiest parts.

For they think the Heavens existed a long time before this wonder; but they cannot tell you when or how its great bodies were drawn from the abysses of nothing.

in my opinion, convert all these Barbarians without difficulty.

We pay especial attention to the Old Men, inasmuch as they are the ones who determine and decide all matters, and everything is ordered by their advice.