"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.

"You know, you have to suffer if you want to win. Jesus had to die and resurrect. That's the kind of thing we expect from our players. You must be ready to suffer in order to win or earn us some victory. You must risk everything and sweat and fight or be knocked out," he said.

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

In Bauer's class, students will compare and contrast the Montreal Canadiens and other religions.

"I hope I have enough students to make two hockey teams. Maybe enough to fit the Bell Centre," he joked.

Two years ago, shortly after the minister moved to Montreal, he and one of his students decided the university should offer the opportunity to study whether the Canadiens are, in fact, a faith.

"If that was the start of the Quiet Revolution,it wasn't very quiet."

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

Campbell's rulingwas considered an act not of justice but of vindictiveness, theEnglish-speaking boss thwarting the aspirations of theFrench-speaking populist hero.

Whenever he stormed a goaltender,Richard's glare could be seen from the top row of the Forum--andin taverns for hundreds of miles around, where the predominantlyFrench-speaking Quebecois listening to the game on the radio hada clear picture of the man whom newspapermen covering theCanadiens had raised to mythical status.

This was the site of the Forum, hockey'stemple, which now lives only in the soft-focus haze of fondmemory

In 1939, when war broke out in Europe, the 18-year-old Richard tried to enlist for active duty, but military doctors determined his wrists and ankle — already broken during hockey games­ — had not healed properly. He tried to enlist again the following year, but was again turned away. So he applied as a machinist but was ineligible even though he had been working as one for years because he had did not have a high school diploma. He began training at the Montreal Technical School to get a certificate that would allow him to serve, but the war ended before he completed the four-year course.

. Boston police come to the locker room. They want to arrest Richard for assault, to throw him in jail for the night. Montreal coach Dick Irvin blocks the entry to the Canadiens’ dressing room.

Then Richard snatches a stick from the ice and swings it wildly at Laycoe. He cuts him below the eye.

So now, at 15:11 of the third period, when Laycoe confronts Richard, the crowd senses something bad about to happen —

25 years for the changes to take effect with the institution of the third-man-in rule.

or perhaps just the end of a time when hockey was more important than politics, as the latter began to take hold among French Canadian youth.

he showed up to the game (10 minutes late)

At the Boston Garden on March 13, 1955, bespectacled Bruins defender Hal Laycoe had another of his endless run-ins with Richard, leaving the Habs' star cut on the head after a high stick. A brawl ensued, and the Rocket broke his CCM stick over Laycoe's back.So far, pretty normal for those days. The rest will always be disputed

Many of them hated each other with the type of passion only love can understand, as paleontologist Steven Jay Gould once observed of 1950s New York baseball.

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.

"I know well enough that we shall have to work hard at first," Eutrope went on, "but you have courage, Maria, and are well used to labour, as I am. I have always worked hard; no one can say that I was ever lazy, and if only you will marry me it will be my joy to toil like an ox all the day long to make a thriving place of it, so that we shall be in comfort before old age comes upon us. I do not touch drink, Maria, and truly I love you ..."

"Not exactly," replied the Frenchman in a low voice. "No, not exactly ..." And a shadow crossed his face which brought from Ephrem. Surprenant:—"It is rough here, rough and hard!"

Doubtless when the storm abated he saw his error, knew that he was walking toward the barren northland, turned at once and took the right course—he so experienced, the woods his home from boyhood. But his food is nearly gone, the cold tortures him; with lowered head and clenched teeth he fights the implacable winter, calling to aid his every reserve of strength and high courage. He thinks of the road he must follow, the miles to be overcome, measures his chances of life; and fitful memories arise of a house, so warm and snug, where all will greet him gladly; of Maria who, knowing what he has dared for her sake, will at length raise to him her truthful eyes shining with love

Those who have passed their lives within the shadow of the Canadian forests know the meaning but too well.

Maria made no answer, but even then her heart told her that all marriages are not like that; now she is very sure. The love of François Paradis for her, her love for him, is a thing apart-a thing holy and inevitable—for she was unable to imagine that between them it should have befallen otherwise; so must this love give warmth and unfading colour to every day of the dullest life. Always had she dim consciousness of such a presence-moving the spirit like the solemn joy of chanted masses, the intoxication of a sunny windy day, the happiness that some unlooked-for good fortune brings, the certain promise of abundant harvest ...

"It is true that I used to drink a bit, when I got back from the shanties and the drive; but that is all over now. You see when a young fellow has been working in the woods for six months, with every kind of hardship and no amusement, and gets out to La Tuque or Jonquieres with all the winter's wages in his pocket, pretty often he loses his head; he throws his money about and sometimes takes too much ... But that is all over."

For this was the passion of his life; the passion of a man whose soul was in the clearing, not the tilling of the earth.

Although he came to see Maria, as all knew, it was to the father of the house that he directed his remarks, partly through shyness, partly out of deference to the manners of the country. He took the chair that was offered him.

Meantime the women in their turn had begun to leave the church. Young or old, pretty or ugly, nearly all were well clad in fur cloaks, or in coats of heavy cloth; for, honouring the Sunday mass, sole festival of their lives, they had doffed coarse blouses and homespun petticoats, and a stranger might well have stood amazed to find them habited almost with elegance in this remote spot; still French to their finger-tips in the midst of the vast lonely forest and the snow, and as tastefully dressed, these peasant women, as most of the middle-class folk in provincial France.

But as the men and boys passed through the doorway and gathered in knots

From the birth of Christianity, and since Jesus Christ redeemed the world only through his blood [page 199] shed upon the [89] Cross, we are assured that the Faith has not been planted in any region of the world except in the midst of crosses and sufferings.

Before their death, both their hearts were torn out, by means of an opening above the breast; and those Barbarians inhumanly feasted thereon, drinking their blood quite warm, which they drew from [51] its source with sacrilegious hands. While still quite full of life, pieces of flesh were removed from their thighs, from the calves of the legs, and from their arms,—which those executioners placed on coals to roast, and ate in their sight. They had slashed their bodies in various parts; and, in order to increase the feeling of pain, they had thrust into these wounds red-hot hatchets.

[28] A little girl of five years, at the Mission of saint Ignace, of Infidel parents, came every day to prayers, morning and evening. She had so constantly adhered to this duty, even against the wishes and the prohibitions of her parents, that we could not refuse her Holy Baptism,—seeing that the spirit of the Faith was abundantly compensating in her for the years that she might lack in order freely to dispose of herself in a matter wherein grace has more right than nature. Some time after, this child fell sick; the Infidel parents, having recourse to the superstitions of the country, sent to fetch the Magician,—or, to speak more correctly, an impostor who made profession of that trade of hell. This juggler does not fail to say, as is his wont, that a certain Demon had reduced their daughter to that state; and that, in order to expel him, it was necessary to present the patient with some embellishments and ornaments of clothing, of which the girls of that age are sufficiently desirous. The little sick girl, although she was very low, nevertheless had strength enough, and her faith gave her courage enough, to belie this impostor. " I am a Christian," she said to her parents; " the Devils have no longer [29] any power over me. I do not consent to the sin that you have just committed, in consulting the Demons; I do not wish their remedies. God alone will cure me; let [page 115] this Magician go away." The father and mothers and all those present, were much astonished at this rebuke,—so innocent, but yet so efficacious that they made that juggler withdraw, not wishing to grieve this sick child. But their astonishment increased when, on that very day, this child asked to be carried to the Church, asserting that she would get well,—as, in fact, it happened. This event has beers the means of converting the father and the mother, who have adopted their daughter's faith, and have received Baptism after her,—blessing God for having called them with so much gentleness.

The number of these proved to be so great that, unable to cope with it by baptizing them one after the other, he was constrained to dip his handkerchief in the water (which was all that necessity then offered him), in order to shed abroad as quickly as possible this grace on those poor Savages, who cried mercy to him,—using the manner of baptizing which is called " by aspersion."

The Day of St. Ignatius passed in this manner: there was no benediction on the eve; high mass was said on the Day; Vespers and sermon at the hospital, sung by the Mothers; and benediction at the Ursulines'.

Just when misfortunes were surrounding us on all sides: conflicts without, which the fierce barbarians, most vindictive enemies of the Christian name, were stirring up; fears within, lest a great multitude of neophytes be abandoned by us, to wander, as before, like beasts through the forests.

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.

Now usually there is only a single feast in each Nation; all the bodies are put into a common pit. I say, usually, for this year, which has happened to be the feast of the Dead, the kettle has been divided; [195] and five Villages of the part where we are have acted by themselves, and have put their dead into a [page 279] private pit.

O NOT undertake to mention in detail everything our Savages are accustomed to do in vir- tue of their dreams; I should be compelled to display on this paper too many absur- dities. I shall content myself with saying that their dreams usually relate either to a feast, or to a song, or to a dance, or to a game,—or, lastly, to a certain sort of mania that they in fact call Ononharoia, or turning the brain upside down." If therefore it happens that some one of some consideration falls sick, [121] the Captain goes to inquire so often, on behalf of the Old Men, what he has dreamed, that at last he draws from him what he desires for his health, and then they all put themselves to trouble to find it for him; if it does not exist, it must be found. From this mode of acting, and from the fact that they exercise hospitality among themselves gratuitously, taking nothing except from us, from whom they always expect something, I entertain the hope that they will one day become susceptible of Christian charity.

On the first of November, seeing a woman with child at the point of death, we made a vow to saint Joseph that, in case she recovered, the child should be baptized. Immediately she began to improve, and some time afterward gave birth to a daughter, who by Baptism has been brought within the ranks of the children of God.

In the afternoon I propose to them some little question from the Catechism, and make them give account of what they have learned during the week, giving to each some little prize according to his merit. This method, along with the little rewards, has wonderful results. For, in the first place, it has kindled among all the children so great a desire to learn that there is not even one who, if it can stammer out words at all, does not desire to be instructed; and, as they are almost all fairly intelligent, they make rapid progress, for they even [12] teach one another. I cannot tell you the satisfaction and consolation these little children give us. When we consider their Fathers, still plunged in their superstitions, although recognizing suffici

The result is a plentiful harvest, which increases the good will of the savages toward the black gowns.