King's Bastion Chapel, Nova Scotia - Catholic Stock Photo

Louisbourg, Nova Scotia was a colony with few priests. Though almost all the people were Catholic, the Church had neither abundant property nor independent wealth. The Récollet missionaries who provided spiritual care never got their parish church, and so the community worshipped in this military chapel. The patron above the altar is the saint-king of France, Louis IX.

Three people were honored with burial beneath the floorboards of the chapel: Governor Duquesnel, who died in the fall of 1744, the Duc d’Enville, who perished leading a doomed attempt to retake Louisbourg in 1746, and Michel de Gannes de Falaise, who died in 1752. There are also the remains of an unidentified child buried here.