Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve

Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve was a French officer who in 1642 founded Ville-Marie, the small missionary settlement on the island of Montreal that grew into the city. He governed it for more than twenty years, through hard winters and long war with the Haudenosaunee.

In the winter after the founding, the river flooded and threatened the settlement. He prayed for the water to go down, and when it did he raised a cross on top of Mount Royal in 1643. A cross has stood there ever since, and today's lit steel one can be seen across the city at night. On the Montreal walk, begin at Pointe-à-Callière, on the ground where the settlement started, then find his statue by Louis-Philippe Hébert, from 1895, in Place d'Armes in front of Notre-Dame Basilica.