Beheading the Saint: Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec

by Geneviève Zubrzycki

Through much of its existence, Québec’s neighbors called it the “priest-ridden province.” Today, however, Québec society is staunchly secular, with a modern welfare state built on lay provision of social services—a transformation rooted in the “Quiet Revolution” of the 1960s.            In Beheading the Saint, Geneviève Zubrzycki studies that transformation through a close investigation of the annual Feast of St. John the Baptist of June 24. The celebrations of that national holiday, she shows, provided a venue for a public contesting of the dominant ethno-Catholic conception of French Canadian identity and, via the violent rejection of Catholic symbols, the articulation of a new, secular Québécois identity. From there, Zubrzycki extends her analysis to the present, looking at the role of Québécois identity in recent debates over immigration, the place of religious symbols in the public sphere, and the politics of cultural heritage—issues that also offer insight on similar debates elsewhere in the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Canada, Religion

322 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 19, 2016

About the author

Geneviève Zubrzycki is Associate Professor of Sociology, Director of the Copernicus Program in Polish Studies, and Faculty Associate at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. She studies national identity and religion, collective memory, mythology and the politics of commemorations, and the place of religious symbols in the public sphere.

Her work focuses on linkages between religion, politics, and collective memory and combines historical and ethnographic methods, considering evidence from material and visual culture.

Dr. Zubrzycki's work has been funded by the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation.

Reviews

[Christopher Gillespie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview of Quebec's history with Catholicism and secularism. A must read for anyone wanting to understand Quebec's navigation, and at times hypocrisy, of faith in the public sphere.

[Francis Leclerc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un livre très éclairant sur l'identité québécoise francophone.

[Ajk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, really, enjoyed this one. It's about Quebec, yes, but more broadly about how all the different streams of nationalisms get mixed up together. The author's emphasis on the conquest of symbols, re-introduction of old symbols, and how narratives are formed in opposition to former narratives...all super fascinating.

And it's all the more so for being about Quebec, a place I'm fascinated enough about on its own for its intertwining of minorities and majorities: it's a whole province, in many ways, of little brothers. All of this oppositionalism is well-researched and with the artwork, gorgeously displayed.

There are so many questions of how to move forward from nationalism, of what to retain from nationalism, that are asked every day in Quebec. This book really digs at a lot of that and left me wondering what it meant for other communities, as well as helping me understand what it meant in Quebec. Just really great stuff.

[Trésor de Velours · Rating 5 out of 5]

J’ai pris beaucoup (trop) de temps à lire cet essai que m’avait conseillé une professeure. Le propos est éclairant, juste et nuancé. L’autrice fait le portrait de l’histoire du Québec par ses représentations iconographiques et par ses célébrations du 24 juin. Québécoise habitant aux États-Unis et, aussi, d’origine polonaise, la professeure, grâce à ce point de vue extérieur, crée des parallèles très intéressants entre différentes cultures afin de vulgariser ce qu’est la celle québécoise.
Alors que nous sommes dans des débats (plutôt acerbes) concernant la laïcité, il semble que ce livre permet de mieux comprendre une certaine partie de la population qui se montre réfractaire à toute manifestation religieuse.

[Jaylani Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I was beginning to dislike this book because it was only about St. John the Baptist holiday, but when I read further to the end, then I started to like this book because it was talking about how Quebec secularism is affecting religious minorities in the province especially with the Charter of Secular Values. However, there are some mistakes such as Leger was the archbishop until 1968, whereas the book says that Paul Gosselin was the archbishop of Montreal in the 1960s (pg.85).