Saint-Constant

Saint-Constant is a Canadian city in Quebec, capital of the Roussillon Regional County Municipality (RCM), in the Montérégie region.

The inhabitants of Saint-Constant are called the Constantins. The city is located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, facing Montreal. The city's population was estimated at 27,359 in 2016 (6,000 in 1973). A typical suburban town, it is primarily residential. The majority of the working population works in Montreal. It is home to the Canadian Railway Museum, the largest rail transportation museum in the country, as well as a LafargeHolcim cement plant.

During the blessing of the church built by the inhabitants of the Mission of Côte Saint-Pierre in 1750, the choice was made to dedicate it to Saint Constant to honor the memory of the father (named Constant) of the revered Jacques Le Marchand de Lignery, parish priest of La Prairie, the mother parish from which Saint-Constant was detached in 1744.

Saint Constant, whose statue depicts him as a Roman soldier, was, according to Eucher of Lyon, part of the Theban Legion commanded by Saint Maurice, an Egyptian legion formed of Christians and massacred in present-day Switzerland on the orders of Caesar Maximian during the time of Emperor Diocletian.

Doubts having arisen regarding the historicity of the Theban Legion, the more common name today is Constant of Ancona, sacristan of the Church of Saint Stephen in Ancona in the 5th century.