Saint-Polycarpe, Quebec


Saint-Polycarpe is a municipality located in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality in the Montérégie region west of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and just east of the Quebec-Ontario border. It was named for Polycarp, a 2nd-century bishop of Smyrna. The population as of the 2021 Canadian Census was 2,372.
While a parish during the 18th century, its territory included portions of what is now part of Saint-Zotique.
WWW stpolycarpe.ca

History

Settlement began around 1800 when a sawmill and a flour mill were built at the rapids of the Delisle river. In 1818, a chapel was built there and in 1830, the parish was established, called Saint-Polycarpe de la Nouvelle-Longueuil. Its post office was built in 1846.
In 1845, the Municipality of La Nouvelle-Longueuil was created, but abolished in 1847. In 1855, it was recreated out of Vaudreuil County as the Parish Municipality of Saint-Polycarpe. In 1887, the village itself split off from the surrounding rural parish to form the Village Municipality of Saint-Polycarpe.
On December 31, 1988, the parish and village merged again to form the Municipality of Saint-Polycarpe.

Geography

Climate

Based on the Dalhousie Mills station in Saint-Télesphore

Arts and culture

The Church of Saint-Polycarpe features a painting depicting Pope Anicetus and Polycarp created in 1890 by Jules-Joseph Scherrer.
The band Exterio references Saint-Polycarpe in their song entitled Saint-Po, which appears on the band's fourth album and is also the second part of the trilogy L'album monstre, La Trappe.
The Schoune microbrewery, established in Saint-Polycarpe since 2000, offers more than twenty different beers, including Spontanée, a Gueuze-style beer fermented for three and a half years. Patrice Schoune, the owner, finished first in the Doemens Academy championship. Schoune beer is used in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges soap manufactured in Saint-Lazare.
On 7 July 1847, Pierre Cholet, a 5-year-old child, was kidnapped from his parents by a stranger. It was 35 years later that he managed to find his parents, still alive, in his native village of Saint-Polycarpe. His story is the subject of a biographical novel, L'Enfant perdu et retrouvé, ou, Pierre Cholet by Jean-Baptiste Proulx, first published in 1887.
In the novel Michelin, published in 2024, as well as in the play that follows, Michel-Maxime Legault sets part of the plot in his native village.

Attractions

Government

List of former mayors :
  • Joseph-Donat-Normand Ménard
  • Roland Daneau
  • Jean Yves Poirier

Infrastructure

Transportation

Saint-Polycarpe is located along Route 340 with nearby Quebec Autoroute 20 running south of the municipality.

Education

Commission Scolaire des Trois-Lacs operates Francophone schools.
Lester B. Pearson School Board operates Anglophone schools.