Statue of Curé Antoine Labelle
![Photograph of a painted plaster statue. It shows Curé Labelle holding, in his right hand, a map of the Laurentians region and pointing downward, with his left hand, to a tree trunk and an axe.](https://www.communitystories.ca/v2/antoine-labelle-l-homme-son-oeuvre_the-man-his-legacy/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2016/10/A8.2_4_Statut-du-curé-Labellle_Cathédrale.jpg)
Sculptor: Olindo Gratton
Date: 1891
Source: Société d’histoire de la Rivière-du-Nord, Museum collection; photograph by Mario Fallu, 2016
This statue was carved by sculptor Olindo Gratton, a native of Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, not long after the death of Antoine Labelle. It depicts the “colonizing priest.” In his right hand, he holds a map of the Laurentians, the northern territory where he promoted settlements. With his left, he points downward to the ground, a tree trunk and an axe, representing the clearing of lots in the Laurentian woodlands. “Emparons-nous du sol,” “Let us seize the soil,” was the curé’s motto. Of the 50 statues cast from the initial mould, only a few have survived intact.