Immaculate Conception Cathedral

 

History 

During the first two centuries of colonization in Newfoundland, Roman Catholics were forbidden to practice their faith on the island, due to Britain’s Penal Laws. In fact, in 1755, when Govenor Richard Dorrill heard that a mass had been celebrated in secrecy in Harbour Grace, he ordered that Charles D. Garland, local justice of the peace, should burn the house in which the mass had been celebrated and arrest the priest. Luckily, Father McNamara, the priest in question, was able to escape to St. Pierre. Similarly, in 1755 several people were convicted of having mass said at their homes. As punishment, offenders had their homes razed, their possessions sold, fishing rooms destroyed; they could also be fined and expelled from the island.

At the end of the 18th century, the anti-Catholic Penal Law were relaxed in England. In 1784 Bishop James O’Donel (O’Donnell) landed in St. John’s. He established the mission in Harbour Grace in 1786, and the first services were conducted at private homes. Father Patrick Phelan, a Franciscan or Friar Minor, headed the Harbour Grace mission under O’Donel, travelling around Conception Bay to deliver mass to its Catholics. Although the date of his arrival is unknown, Phelan was in Harbour Grace by 1794, making two visitations to his parish annually. In September 1799, Phelan drowned off Grates Cove, his boat capsizing along with its crew. Phelan’s body was recovered and interned at the graveyard in Harbour Grace (today, the Bennett’s Lane Graveyard).

Rev. Ambrose Fitzpatrick succeeded Phelan at Harbour Grace, from 1800 to 1806, when Rev. Thomas Anthony Ewer (Yore) took charge of the mission. Under Ewer’s stewardship, the first chapel was built in Harbour Grace, a wooden church with a 100-foot steeple.

By 1830, the mission had become a parish. In 1830 Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming went to Ireland to recruit missionaries for Newfoundland. When Ewer died in 1833, one of these Irish missionaries, Rev. Charles Dalton, succeeded him as parish priest. The wooden church was soon turned down, with plans set to build a new, ornate church in Harbour Grace.

In 1844 excavation began on this new cathedral. Though Bishop John Thomas Mullock laid the cornerstone in 1852, construction continued for years afterward. The parish became the Diocese of Harbour Grace under Bishop John Dalton, Charles Dalton’s nephew. In 1869, after John Dalton’s death, Bishop Enrico (Henry) Carfagnini, an Italian who spoke little English, took over the diocese. Carfagnini had some architectural experience, desiring the new cathedral to resemble St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. For the cathedral, the stone came from Kelly’s Island (off Bell Island); timber from the United States; brick from Hamburg, Germany; granite from Scotland; and marble from Italy. The use of locally quarried stone made this cathedral unique in rural Newfoundland. (Locally quarried stone was often used in many building in Harbour Grace, one of the island’s financial epicentres in the 19th century

Carfagnini eventually fell out with Harbour Grace’s parishioners, notably the non-denominational Benevolent Irish Society (BIS), established in Harbour Grace in 1814. Chafing against the participatory tradition of Newfoundland’s Irish Catholics, Carfagnini demanded loyalty from BIS members, denying them sacraments and a Christian burial unless they disavowed their “secret society” in 1874. He soon lost this dispute when Rome declared the BIS a civil society, outside of the Carfagnini jurisdiction, in 1875. Carfagnini also fought with the Presentation sisters in Harbour Grace over their financial independence. Due to these issues, the authoritarian Carfagini left Harbour Grace in 1880, becoming bishop of Gallipoli, in Italy.

Bishop Ronald MacDonald followed Carfagnini and finished his work, completing the cathedral around 1884. At the time of its completion, the building was valued at $350,000. Unfortunately, the diocese did not insure the church, and fire destroyed the building on September 2, 1889.

After the fire, construction began again on another Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Without an insurance windfall, recycled material was used to construct this third church. Hastily built, this Gothic Revival-style cathedral was finished and consecrated in 1892.

Bishop John March succeeded MacDonald in 1906, Bishop J. M. O’Neil succeeding March in 1940. In 1953 the church at Grand Falls became co-cathedral, and the Harbour Grace-Grand Falls Diocese was formed. In 1956 the bishop’s seat was moved to Grand Falls. Though restoration work began in 1987, the cathedral was closed in 2014.

A local landmark in Harbour Grace, the Immaculate Conception Cathedral served parishioners for well over 100 years. The cathedral symbolizes the rise of the Roman Catholic church in Newfoundland, after the Emancipation Act of 1832.

The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador designated the Immaculate Conception Cathedral a Registered Heritage Structure in April 1990.

In 2018 Craig Flynn and Brenda O’Reilly, of Republic Brewery, purchased the cathedral, with ambitions to restore the building as a brewery, hotel and conference space. (Further information: CBC.ca)

 

News Articles on Immaculate Conception Repurposing Project: 

– “Grand and graceful: This project promises to bestow blessing on a historical Newfoundland town” (Menu Magazine, November/December, 2018): http://www.menumag.ca/digital-magazine/

– “Yellowbelly to bring new life to the infamous Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Harbour Grace” (The Overcast, Jan. 8, 2019): https://theovercast.ca/yellowbelly-to-bring-new-life-to-the-infamous-cathedral-of-the-immaculate-conception-in-harbour-grace/

– “Hundreds show up for final service at Harbour Grace church” (The Compass, Nov. 6, 2018): https://www.cbncompass.ca/news/local/hundreds-show-up-for-final-service-at-harbour-grace-church-256946/

– “Church redevelopment could aid historic Harbour Grace courthouse’s future” (The Compass, Nov. 5, 2018): https://www.thetelegram.com/news/local/church-redevelopment-could-aid-historic-harbour-grace-courthouses-future-256746/

– “Packed house for the last service at Immaculate Conception in Harbour Grace” (VOCM News, Nov. 5, 2018): http://vocm.com/news/packed-house-for-the-last-service-at-immaculate-conception-in-harbour-grace/

– “Harbour Grace mayor excited about new business coming [to] town” (The Telegram, Oct. 25, 2018): https://www.thetelegram.com/business/harbour-grace-mayor-excited-about-new-business-coming-town-253433/

– “This historic Newfoundland church is getting a second act – as a brewery” (CBC, Oct. 13, 2018): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/historic-newfoundland-cathedral-becoming-brewery-1.4862079

 

 

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Location: 

GPS Coordinates: 47.695574, -53.210713

Street Address: 9 Water St E, Harbour Grace, NL

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Presentation Sisters Convent, Harbour Grace

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation was founded by Honoria (Nano) Nagle in 1775, in Cork, Ireland. Nagle had been trained in France as a religious educator, and her Order was to educate and instruct “young girls, especially the poor, in the precepts and rudiments of the Catholic Faith.”

In 1833 Bishop Michael Fleming visited the Galway Presentation convent to recruit nuns for teaching in Newfoundland. Fleming’s objective was to foster “a system of education that…would smooth the pillow of sickness, and soften the rigours of winter, by the diffusion of true Christian feeling.” In response to Fleming’s request, four Presentation Sisters followed the bishop to St. John’s, arriving on September 21, 1833. They opened their first school a month later.

Presentation convents spread outside of St. John’s after Fleming’s death on July 14, 1850. Under the auspices of Bishop Thomas Mullock, Fleming’s successor, convents were opened at Harbour Grace in 1851, at Carbonear in 1852, and at Harbour Main in 1853. The sisters taught young girls in the community and had adult instruction on Sundays.

Over the years, the sisters became a permanent fixture in Conception Bay society. Bishop Charles Dalton, the Diocese of Harbour Grace’s first bishop, gave them a house and a 23-acre farm, which he had purchased from Dr. William Stirling. This move solidified their independence from the church’s control. The convent was located to the right of the cathedral, near the present-day graveyard.

This financial latitude caused them to clash with Enrico (Henry) Carfagnini, the authoritarian former bishop of Harbour Grace Diocese. Carfagnini made several attempts, albeit unsuccessful, to remove the Presentation sisters from Conception Bay, to weaken the decision-making power of the Irish in his congregation. The convent survived, however, and Carfagnini took a new post in Gallipoli, Italy.

In 1884, under Bishop Ronald McDonald, a new convent was built on the same property, just south of the former residence. The total cost of building was 889 pounds.

The convent closed in 1971 and was dismantled in 1974.

 

 

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Links & Further Information: 

Heritage NL | Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador | Canada’s Historic Places | Newfoundland Grand Banks | Immaculate Conception Parish | RC Diocese Grand Falls | Presentation Sisters (Heritage NL) | Mary Kirwan Profile (Dictionary of Canadian Biography) | Presentation Sisters Graveyard (NL Grand Banks)

 

Historical pictures are always welcome! Send (with attribution) to matthewmccarthy@www.hrgrace.ca.