In 2020, restorers working on the altar dedicated to Saint Joseph made an unexpected discovery. Removing the fabric lining the tabernacle in order that it might be cleaned, they found the early votive offering pictured here.

That discovery immediately caught the interest of many and the wish for some knowledge about both the votive donor and the owner of the engraved heart-shaped silver medal.

The powerful protection of the saint in whose care it was originally confided has ensured that even after research, the ex voto offering signed L. Joseph Fauteux, today continues to benefit from the discretion its donor sought for it when many years ago it was carefully hidden out of sight in the tabernacle.

The donor is most likely to have been Louis Joseph Fauteux, born in 1853 near Mirabel in Saint-Benoît, Quebec. A builder of churches, monasteries and other buildings in Quebec and Ontario, he passed away in 1941. The identification of Sister Anne Marie whose name is engraved on the medal however, remains hidden.

Entrusted to the safekeeping of Saint Joseph, the votive offering has been placed in a specially created reliquary and affixed to the wall very near the saint’s altar, beneath the statue of Saint Anne and the Virgin to allow those who so wish to view it.