Orthodox Christian dating in Quebec
Orthodox Christian dating in Quebec: a French-speaking parish founded in 1983, Russian, Romanian, Greek and Antiochian churches in Montreal, and Quebec City.
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- OCA
- Greek
- Antiochian
Short answer
On 23 August 1981, Montreal heard its first Orthodox service in French: Vespers at the Russian cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul on rue Champlain, sung by the choir of an English-speaking parish, the Sign of the Theotokos, followed by a talk from Father John Meyendorff. Two members of that parish had founded a small brotherhood that spring to make Orthodoxy known in French Canada. Two years later, in 1983, the French-speaking parish of Saint-Benoît-de-Nursie was founded.
Saint-Benoît describes itself as the principal and oldest French-speaking Orthodox parish in the New World. Its members come from every background, and its services are in French.
Eight places are listed below, each with an address and a link: six in Montreal, one in Quebec City and a skete at Rawdon in the Laurentian foothills.
You are reading cana.love, a free site for men and women who want to marry. Its members are not all Orthodox; we explain that further down.
Orthodox Christians in Quebec
Montreal's Orthodox churches speak many languages. Saints Peter and Paul, founded in 1907, is a Russian cathedral of the Orthodox Church in America's Archdiocese of Canada; the Annunciation, known as Buna Vestire, founded in 1913, is the Romanian cathedral of the same Church's Romanian Episcopate. The Sign of the Theotokos serves mainly in English, with some French, Greek and Slavonic, and Saint-Benoît in French.
The Romanian presence is large in the directory: thirteen of the thirty entries the Orthodox Church in America lists for Quebec belong to its Romanian Episcopate, from Anjou and Laval to Lachine and Saint-Eustache. One of them, St Parascheva, shares its address with Saint-Benoît.
Orthodox Studies Institute, 2024; figures from the United States, not Quebec
Beyond Montreal, the Orthodox Church in America lists a French-speaking community in Quebec City, Saint-Hilaire-de-Poitiers, named like Saint-Benoît after a saint of the West, and small mission stations in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Rimouski, the last founded this year.
The one large survey of converts comes from south of the border: the Orthodox Studies Institute covered twenty American parishes in fifteen states and six jurisdictions. Among people received since 2013, two in three were under forty, the thirties outnumbered any other decade, and 44 percent entered the Church unmarried. Nothing comparable exists for Quebec.
Where the community gathers
The eight places fall into three parts of the province: Montreal, Lanaudière, and Quebec City.
Montreal
Montreal holds six: Saint-Benoît-de-Nursie in Saint-Laurent, the Sign of the Theotokos on boulevard Saint-Joseph, Saints Peter and Paul on rue Champlain, Buna Vestire on avenue Christophe-Colomb, the Greek cathedral of St George on Côte-Sainte-Catherine and the Antiochian St George on Jean-Talon.
Lanaudière
Lanaudière holds one: the Holy Transfiguration Skete at Rawdon, where a Russian Orthodox cemetery and a church of St Seraphim share the address.
Quebec City
Quebec City holds one: Holy Trinity on boulevard Valcartier, founded in 1950. The French-speaking community of Saint-Hilaire-de-Poitiers also has an address in the city.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
A French-speaking parish of the Orthodox Church in America's Archdiocese of Canada, founded in 1983, with Great Vespers on Saturday at five and the Divine Liturgy in French on Sunday at ten.
807 avenue Sainte-CroixSaint-Laurent
QC H4L 3X6
An English-speaking parish founded in 1978, with some French in its services, Vespers on Saturday at five, the Liturgy on Sunday at ten and a meal in the hall afterwards.
750 boulevard Saint-Joseph EstMontréal
QC H2J 1K2
A Russian cathedral of the Archdiocese of Canada, founded in 1907, where Montreal's first French-language Orthodox Vespers was sung in 1981.
1175 rue ChamplainMontréal
QC H2L 2R7
The Romanian cathedral of the Orthodox Church in America's Romanian Episcopate, founded in 1913.
8080 avenue Christophe-ColombMontréal
QC H2R 2S9
The cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada in Montreal.
2455 Côte-Sainte-Catherine RoadMontréal
QC H3T 1A8
An Antiochian parish in a church built in 1939 and 1940 for the city's Syrian Orthodox community.
555 rue Jean-Talon EstMontréal
QC H2R 1T8
A skete, or monastic community, of the Archdiocese of Canada, founded in 1978, beside a Russian Orthodox cemetery.
3494 15e AvenueRawdon
QC J0K 1S0
A parish of the Archdiocese of Canada in Quebec City, founded in 1950.
11054 boulevard ValcartierQuébec
QC G2A 2M3
Distances that decide everything
A diagram, not a map. Driving times, as in the text.
Inside Montreal the churches are twenty minutes apart or less by car. Rawdon is a little over an hour north, Sherbrooke an hour and a half east, Trois-Rivières under two hours, and Quebec City around three.
So Orthodox Quebec is Montreal first, with a handful of places an hour or more away. Two people on the island can meet after any Sunday Liturgy; Quebec City is a weekend.
Your home and your readiness to move are both on a cana.love profile, so distance is settled before anyone writes.
The Orthodox year in Quebec
Vespers in French
Saint-Benoît sings Great Vespers at five in the afternoon.
The Liturgy, in two languages
At ten, at Saint-Benoît in French and at the Sign of the Theotokos in English.
Lunch in the hall
The Sign of the Theotokos sits down together once the Liturgy ends.
Services streamed
The Sign of the Theotokos also broadcasts its Liturgy.
A new mission
The Orthodox Church in America opened the mission station of Sainte-Théophanie in Rimouski this year.
23 August
In 1981, Montreal's first Orthodox Vespers in French was sung that evening at Saints Peter and Paul.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
French, English, Russian, Romanian, Greek and Arabic under one Orthodox faith: in Quebec, the person you meet after the Liturgy may pray in another language. cana.love is built for that.
Twelve jurisdictions on one list
The form has twelve jurisdictions to choose from: OCA, ROCOR, Greek, Antiochian, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Carpatho-Russian, Albanian, Catechumen and Other Canonical. For the places on this page that means OCA, Greek or Antiochian, and Catechumen for anyone preparing to be received.
Practice, asked outright
Practice follows: Sunday Liturgy, the fasts, and whether marriage is what you seek. The site is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian, though not in French.
Checked before it appears
No profile and no photo is shown until reviewed; software looks first, and a staff member rules on whatever it cannot. Members may not ask each other for money, and an account used for fraud is shut for good, without notice.
Free, and no password
Joining costs nothing and renews nothing, and there is no password: every sign-in is a single-use link or code by email.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not an Orthodox-only platform.
Its members also include Catholics, Protestants and people between churches, all hoping for the same kind of marriage; your privacy settings decide who finds you. In a province where Orthodox Christians are spread across several languages and jurisdictions, a site for one of them alone would leave most people without a match. What it promises is visible on every profile: jurisdiction, practice and intentions, to be read before you answer. The operator is Cana SpA, registered in Chile; the About page tells the rest.
Meeting safely
- A first meeting belongs in daylight and in public, with an end time agreed: coffee after the Liturgy, a café on the Plateau or in Old Quebec. Let a friend know the place and, on Autoroute 40 or 20 in winter, your time home. Your address can wait.
- Money has one rule: before an in-person meeting, no sending, no lending and no paying for travel, however it is asked. We act on one report.
For what follows a report, and how to appeal, see the community guidelines.
Common questions
Is there an Orthodox parish in French?
Saint-Benoît-de-Nursie in Saint-Laurent, Montreal, founded in 1983, with its services in French; Quebec City has a French-speaking community, Saint-Hilaire-de-Poitiers.
Where are the Romanian parishes?
The Buna Vestire cathedral on avenue Christophe-Colomb, and a dozen more in Greater Montreal listed by the Orthodox Church in America.
Is there a Russian church?
The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul on rue Champlain, founded in 1907, and the skete and cemetery at Rawdon.
Is there anything in Quebec City?
Holy Trinity on boulevard Valcartier, founded in 1950, and the French-speaking community of Saint-Hilaire-de-Poitiers.
Is cana.love in French?
No: it runs in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian.
Can I use cana.love in Quebec?
Yes, anywhere in the province, from the age of eighteen. It works in a browser, with nothing to install.
Next steps
In Montreal, go to Vespers in French at Saint-Benoît on a Saturday and the Liturgy in English at the Sign of the Theotokos on Sunday. And to see how someone practises before your first coffee, in whichever language, open a free cana.love profile and read theirs.
Reviewed on September 24, 2026.