It is impossible to list all the facts and accomplishments of such a long and rich episcopate within the limits of this article. Let us just highlight a few of them.

The first important act of Msgr. Bourget was to entrust the formation of diocesan priests to Saint Sulpice in 1840. In 1854, the Grand Séminaire, which was initially housed in the former Collège de Montréal on Saint-Paul Street, was definitively established on its present site on Sherbrooke Street West and was given the wonderful name of Le Grand Séminaire de Ville-Marie à la Montagne.
 

• In 1841, he fulfilled a desire of Msgr. Lartigue by launching a publication, Les Mélanges religieux, which later became La Semaine religieuse de Montréal, then the Église de Montréal, and finally today’s Vivre en Église. In 1844, having taken over from Msgr. Lartigue, he contributed to the formation of the first ecclesiastical province in Canada, comprised of four dioceses of United Canada (Act of Union): Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Kingston.

• In 1846, he became engaged in a completely different area of activity when he participated in the founding of the Banque de la Cité et du District de Montréal with the goal of promoting economic activity among workers. Today, it is known as Laurentian Bank.

• In 1847, a large number of Irish immigrants, driven from their country by famine, entered Canada. With them came a typhus epidemic. Msgr. Bourget mobilized the people living in the diocese. Religious sisters died caring for the sick. He himself paid for his involvement with his own life and had to be hospitalised.

• In 1852, a large fire ravaged the entire downtown area. A great fire that sowed dismay. A thousand houses were burned. Nine thousand people were left in the street. The cathedral and the episcopal residence were burned down.
   

For a long period, the cathedral became the chapel of the Asile de la Providence and the bishopric stayed at the Hospice Saint-Joseph. In 1854, Msgr. Bourget acquired land in the west of the city to build a new cathedral. A bold and forward-thinking move. For him, the city centre would develop towards the west. In 1856, he decided in Rome that the future cathedral would be a scaled-down copy of St. Peter's in Rome to symbolize the Canadian Church's attachment to the Holy See. It was only in 1870 that the first stone of the present cathedral was laid, on René-Lévesque Boulevard between Mansfield and de la Cathédrale.
 

• Also in 1852, a first division of the diocese was made to form the diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe. Msgr. Jean-Charles Prince, coadjutor in Montreal since 1844, was the first bishop.

• The diocese of Montreal, which had a hundred parishes in 1840, had one hundred and forty in 1870.

• In 1873, Canon Edouard-Charles Fabre was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Montreal, with a later preferment.

• In 1874, the diocese was divided for a second time to form the Diocese of Sherbrooke.

• On September 9, 1876, Msgr. Bourget resigned.