Working as a priest, Father Jean-Pierre Couturier is in the business of saving souls.

But for the last twenty years, he’s also practiced a second vocation: repairing soles.

Couturier is on a self-proclaimed mission to provide sturdy, dependable shoes to the city’s homeless.

Once a week, he takes up a special collection – frequenting shoe stores to pick up used footwear left behind by shoppers – and revives them.

“It transforms [the homeless],” Couturier said. “It changes somebody’s walking around, instead of not being able to be out and free.”

Two decades ago, Couturier’s business started small. Ordained in 1996, he began his spiritual work as a priest at of the Mary Queen of the World basilica on Rene-Levesque.

From there, he moved to St. Angele congregation in St. Donat, and four years ago, took up work as a chaplain at a church in Riviere-des-Prairies.

Today, over 20 merchants do their share to further Couturier’s charitable initiative, keeping old shoes that he and a small team of volunteers will collect and go on to repair.

Father Couturier’s cobbling workshop is in an unlikely place: deep in the basement of the basilica where he started out, since his current parish doesn’t have enough room to accommodate a workshop space.

He learned the basics of shoe repair from his mentor, a cobbler working in Place Ville Marie.

Some of the shoes received need dire repairs, like a sole to be either glued or replaced. Other shoes Couturier considers to be in “perfect shape” – only needing new laces or some light buffing.

The irony, he explained, is that people often think of donating clothing, but don’t see any value in worn out shoes.

“At the beginning people were a little surprised,” he said. “They’d say ‘oh yeah? They’re gonna wear that?’ And I said ‘sure.’”

More often than not, Courturier said these shoes are bound for the landfill because people are hesitant to take on the repair work.

“They would be thrown out because there was, let’s say, a little stain… or something that needs a bit of repair, a bit of glue,” he said. “But they wouldn’t have the time or desire to do so.”

In the winter, neglected footwear needs some extra vigorous scrubbing to get into top shape.

For the last five years, organist and composer Alexandra Fol has committed herself to helping out with the shoes – she believes that it’s “very important” to help those who need it.

She initially joined Couturier in his mission after he underwent surgery. Quite stubbornly, she said, he tried to go out and collect shoes post-op. Fol felt she needed to help him – and five years later that help has, by proxy, extended to some of the city’s more vulnerable residents.

The most rugged of the shoes will end up at the Maison du Pere homeless shelter— tough, heavy-duty boots and shoes, for example.

Others, like heels or dress shoes, will end up in church charity shops.

Couturier does not often get to meet the recipients of his shoes, but no matter which step of the process he’s at, it’s the manual work, he said, that keeps him active.

“We’re dealing with grace, divine life and spiritual growth, so we don’t see much of it: it doesn’t belong to us,” he explained. “But concrete things like shoe repair are very satisfying.”