Montreal priest doubles as a cobbler to help those in need

Jean-Pierre Couturier is a man of many talents.

He’s a Catholic priest serving at the Mission Marie-Auxiliatrice, an Italian parish on Maurice-Duplessis in Rivière des Prairies.

However, he has a second trade — one that has him spending time in the basement of the Mary Queen of the World Cathedral.

It all started 20 years ago when a homeless man visited the cathedral; Couturier was serving as an assistant priest.

The homeless man spent his days there, but people started complaining.

“Some ladies came up to me and said ‘Father Jean-Pierre, Jean-Paul there smells really terrible,'” Couturier remembers.

“I brought him downstairs and asked him to take off his shoes and he had gangrene.”

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He says that got him thinking about how people on the street wear their shoes 24 hours a day — so he launched a new project.

READ MORE: Montreal man bringing back lost art of the shoe shine

He began approaching shoe stores in downtown Montreal, asking the managers for the used shoes customers leave behind.

He takes them back to the cathedral to repair — a skill he says he picked up, with a little help from his friend, Ghyslain Antil, a professional cobbler.

“That’s my mentor,” he tells Global News, greeting Antil with a fist bump at the cobbler’s shop at Place Ville-Marie.

“He’s the one who teaches me how to repair shoes.”

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They hug. “He’s really good.  He’s really good with his hands,” Antil answers, beaming.

Twenty stores now donate shoes to him every week, amounting to about 200 pairs, depending on the season.

Charlie Carestia, a shoe salesman at Browns in Place Ville-Marie, has been donating shoes to Couturier for about 10 years.

“It’s not difficult. We can recondition them and give to the people who are in need,” Carestia told Global News.

Couturier said he sets out every Thursday, his day off from his priestly duties, and walks about six kilometers to the different stores.

“It’s my weekly exercise,” he grins, walking briskly while whistling and hauling a large shopping basket behind him, in which he piles the shoes.

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He admits success in his work as a priest is hard to measure, but when he gives shoes to the needy, the results are immediate.

“It feels good. I do it for myself after all,” he says, bursting into laughter.

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Alexandra Fol, the organist from Mission Marie-Auxiliatrice, has been helping Couturier for the last five years.

“Alexandra is really making sure that I do things right, because I do get distracted,” Couturier said.

Couturier said he may soon have to move his little workshop as the cathedral might need the space — but he doesn’t seem to concerned.

“Meh, providence will provide,” he smiles.

He is a man of faith, after all.