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The Holy Door Experience

Passing throught the Holy Door

During our lives, every door represents a passage. They are transitions from one place to another, a change of environment. Sometimes, when we move from past to future, they represent a rupture.

As a significant symbol of spiritual experience, the Holy Door offers the opportunity to collect lost parts of our life. By going through the various stages and transitions of his own living, one can find his current yearnings and discover what he’s truely looking for. Here, pilgrims will commune with persons who are precious for them, specifically family members, close ones or persons who, just like them, are facing closed doors of life they’re looking to open.

We’re invited to pass through this Holy Door from the outside to the inside as if we were trying to enter our own self. We are looking for the meaning of our future in order to pinpoint the essential values. This is a quest for sense.

Msgr Denis Bélanger, Rector of the Cathedral

For believer

Christ said: « I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved » . The Holy Door is closely linked to a pilgrimage experience. It’s a symbol of human life, of our terrestrial journey towards eternity during which we encounter God in every step of the way.

What is a Holy Door

The Holy Door is a real door, pierced in the wall of the Chapel of the Sacred Heart on the north side of the Cathedral. The Holy See granted Notre-Dame de Québec an extraordinary privilege when authorizing its construction.

Jubilees are years of remission, of indulgence, and also of reconciliation, conversion and sacramental penance The purpose of Holy Doors is to be open and accessible to all during Holy Years (Jubilees) as a symbols of the paths leading to conversion and blessings.

Jubilees normally take place every 25 years but a Pope can announce one when deemed appropriate. That is why Pope Francis announced that the Jubilee of Mercy would take place from December 2015 to November 2016.

Notre-Dame de Québec’s Holy Door was also opened in 2024 for a very special reason: the 350th anniversary of foundation of the Quebec diocese. It was sealed en December 2024 and will not be openened in 2025.