{"id":2369,"date":"2025-10-23T13:25:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/23\/after-vicious-storm-residents-of-gravelbourg-sask-rally-to-fix-renowned-cathedral\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:25:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:25:49","slug":"after-vicious-storm-residents-of-gravelbourg-sask-rally-to-fix-renowned-cathedral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/23\/after-vicious-storm-residents-of-gravelbourg-sask-rally-to-fix-renowned-cathedral\/","title":{"rendered":"After vicious storm, residents of Gravelbourg, Sask., rally to fix renowned cathedral"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Saskatchewan Community\u00b7Land of Living StoriesA 2024 storm damaged parts of the stained glass at Gravelbourg\u2019s Our Lady of Assumption Co-Cathedral last year, but residents pitched in to pick up the pieces and fix the damage. Now, lovers of this historic work of art are working to raise $1 million to maintain and preserve the building into the future.   Supporters of cathedral aim to raise $1 million to maintain historic siteJanani Whitfield  \u00b7 CBC News  \u00b7 Posted: Oct 23, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoLocal artisan Dolor\u00e9s Ferraton helped to fix and replace the stained glass parts of Gravelbourg\u2019s renowned cathedral that were damaged after summer storms last year. (Janani Whitfield\/CBC)CBC\u2019s virtual road trip seriesLand of Living Storiesexplores the hidden gems across Saskatchewan. Reporter Janani Whitfield hit the road to Gravelbourg in search of inspiring stories of community spirit. This is the third of a four-part series from that community.  Visitors to Gravelbourg are often blown away when they step into Our Lady of Assumption Co-Cathedral, feeling they\u2019ve been transported to a church in France.\u201cIt\u2019s like a little big town. It\u2019s got things that you don\u2019t expect in a small town like this,\u201d said Louis Stringer, who gives tours of the cathedral in southwest Saskatchewan to roughly 1,000 people a year.He and others in this town about 150 kilometres southwest of Regina feel the onus is on them to protect and care for the cathedral, which was constructed in 1919. Every inch of its walls is a testament to the love of God and art of its early resident priest, Monsignor Charles Maillard.\u201cHe started to paint the cathedral in 1921 and it took him 10 years to do all the paintings, which is remarkable,\u201d Stringer said.Monsignor Charles Maillard was the resident priest and painter who decorated the walls and ceilings of Gravelbourg\u2019s co-cathedral. (Janani Whitfield\/CBC)Maillard also hand-painted the windows of the cathedral. When they began to fade in the late 1970s, they were replaced by the work of stained glass artisans from France over the course of six years, which is \u201cremarkable,\u201d Stringer said.\u201cIt\u2019s a place that inspires people.\u201dWhen a vicious hail storm struck in June 2024, some of the protective pane glass broke on the outside of the building. A wind storm a month later pushed one of the stained glass windows out of its frame.From Radio-Canada:Le couvent de Gravelbourg, un patrimoine \u00e0 r\u00e9inventerFortunately, local artisan Dolor\u00e9s Ferraton was able to step in to replace the broken glass pieces. She considered it a great honour, she said.\u201cI knew about the cathedral since I was a child because I grew up in southern Saskatchewan as a Francophone and this was the centre of all Francophone activity,\u201d she said. \u201cEven before seeing the town, I recognized the steeples on the cathedral. So it\u2019s been in my consciousness forever.\u201dShe worked through the winter on replacing the affected broken glass, ensuring the finished product was more sturdy than the old, flimsy glass that fell. The stained glass was reinstalled earlier this year.\u201cI would do anything to help out\u2026 And if that\u2019s my small part, I\u2019m very, very happy that it could happen,\u201d she said.Sask. town thankful Americans keep flocking here to hunt, amid Canada-U.S. tensions  Read more Land of Living Stories features hereTo ensure the church\u2019s survival, the Gravelbourg Co-Cathedral Preservation Endowment Fund has been set up through the South Saskatchewan Community Fund.Stringer said the hope is to raise $1 million, generating enough interest to preserve and maintain the cathedral; $250,000 has been raised to date.\u201cIt\u2019s nice to own the Cadillacs, but you\u2019ve got to have some money to put in the gas tank,\u201d Stringer said with a chuckle.Louis Stringer, who gives guided tours of Gravelbourg\u2019s co-cathedral, stands at the front of the building. (Nicole Lavergne-Smith\/Radio-Canada)While he might compare it to a Cadillac, Ferraton says it\u2019s like the \u201cEiffel Tower\u201d to her. Then she looks around and corrects herself, in a quiet confession.\u201cActually, I like it better than the Eiffel Tower; it\u2019s more interesting.\u201dMaillard must have felt a similar sense of awe. Ill health forced him back east to be with family in his later years, but when he died, his body was brought back to the place that was the closest to his heart \u2014 Gravelbourg, home to an awe-inspiring cathedral.ABOUT THE AUTHORJanani Whitfield is a community engagement producer who also edits feature storytelling and First Person columns for CBC Saskatchewan. Contact her at janani.whitfield@cbc.ca. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saskatchewan Community\u00b7Land of Living StoriesA 2024 storm damaged parts of the stained glass at Gravelbourg\u2019s Our Lady of Assumption Co-Cathedral last year, but residents pitched in to pick up the pieces and fix the damage. Now, lovers of this historic work of art are working to raise $1 million to maintain and preserve the building [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,123,1],"tags":[116,122],"class_list":["post-2369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-saskatchewan","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-saskatchewan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}