Sainte-Croix is a municipality in and the seat of the Municipalité régionale de comté de Lotbinière

Lotbinière Regional County Municipality, Quebec

Lotbinière is a Regional County Municipality in central Quebec, Canada in the Chaudière-Appalaches region. It is an almost exclusively rural RCM, with no village with a population above 4,000. As of the 2001 Census, the RCM had a population of 26,851, a decrease of 0.3% since 1996. Its seat is in...

 in Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is part of the Chaudière-Appalaches

Chaudière-Appalaches

Chaudière-Appalaches is an administrative region in Quebec, Canada. It comprises most of what is historically known as the "Beauce" |the electoral district of Beauce]]). It is named for the Chaudière River and the Appalachian Mountains....

 region and the population is 2,433 as of 2009. The new constitution dates from 2001, after the amalgamation of the parish and the village of Sainte-Croix.

Name

Sainte-Croix name refers to the True Cross

True Cross

The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.According to post-Nicene historians, Socrates Scholasticus and others, the Empress Helena The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a...

, but was in use well before its foundation in 1713. In fact, the seigneurie

Seigneurial system of New France

The seigneurial system of New France was the semi-feudal system of land distribution used in the North American colonies of New France.-Introduction to New France:...

of Sainte-Croix was granted in 1637 to the Company of One Hundred Associates

Company of One Hundred Associates

In 1627 the French government granted the company of 100 associates a monopoly on the fur trade in New france. In return the company was supposed to bring over 4000 French catholics to settle down in new france over the next 15 years. The company allowed the settlers to trade for furs directly with...

 at a point named Platon Sainte-Croix (Holy Cross Flats in English), at the mouth of the Jacques-Cartier River

Jacques-Cartier River

The Jacques-Cartier River is a river in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is 161 km long and its source is Jacques-Cartier Lake in Laurentides Wildlife Reserve, and flows in a predominantly southern direction before ending in the Saint Lawrence River at Donnacona, about 30 km upstream...

. It had been named as such by Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier was a French explorer of Breton origin who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big...

, who had spent the winter of 1535-36 there. Samuel de Champlain

Samuel de Champlain

Samuel de Champlain , "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608....

 explained in 1613 that there had been a mistake and this was not the place where Jacques Cartier had wintered. The point is now called Pointe Platon ("Plato (or Flat) Point").