The Saint-Boniface Archdiocese held a weekend of celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the first missionaries to arrive in western and northern Canada. 

The first bishop of St. Boniface, Joseph-Norbert Provencher, established the first mission in 1818 at the fork of the Red River and Assiniboine River. The cathedral, which was erected a few years later, is considered the Mother Church of Western Canada, according to Salt & Light Media.

Thousands of people gathered over the weekend to celebrate. It began on Friday with an ecumenical prayer service and continued through the weekend with music, reenactments, and a special Solemn Jubilation mass on Sunday morning.

Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, the current Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada, led the Solemn mass. He gave a homily entitled Go! On with the Mission!

"How can we encounter Christ and savour the new life he brings us without feeling an irresistible urge to share this Good News?"

"We are gathered here today because men and women responded in great numbers to the call of Christ," Cardinal Lacroix said in the homily. "Because they went beyond the frontiers of their homes and comfort zones to go and bear the Good News of the Gospel to the farthest peripheries of this immense territory."