Catholic Parishes in PEI (c. 1885) by Rev. Alfred E. Burke
Please see the Contents page for information on this and other historical sketches of PEI Roman Catholic parishes, as compiled by Father Alfred Burke circa 1885.
The Mission St. Martin on the South Shore
The mission of St. Martin on the South Shore of Prince Edward Island, is a dependancy of the Cathedral Parish of Charlottetown. The first Catholic came there in 1824 and settled on property belonging to a daughter of general Fanning, the original proprietor of Township Sixty-Five. They had heard that this property was offered to settlers free of rent, and were under the impression that it was cleared land, but on their arrival, found they would have to settle among stumps, for the "clear land" of the advertisement meant only that the timber had been felled. There were no roads in these parts and the early settlers were obliged to row all round the blockhouse to hear mass in Charlottetown. Neither the length of this journey nor the severe weather they sometimes encountered, would deter them from faithfully fulfilling the command of the church, and they would bring their children to receive baptism, when only a few days old, by the same hazardous route.
These early settlers were very happy; they had very rich land on which everything they chose to cultivate would grow in great luxuriance; it is said that even cucumbers planted among the stumps would ripen for use as soon as those grown in ordinary gardens under glass. Winding cow paths through the woods led from one farm to another and by means of these visiting was rendered easy, and the neighbours enjoyed many a friendly ceilidh.
It was not until 1872 that the dwellers in this tiny settlement decided upon building themselves a church; in that year they set about the erection of the pretty little sanctuary in which once a month one of the priests from Charlottetown celebrates mass. This church of St. Martin is thirty five feet in length by twenty five in breadth and sixteen feet post. It is built of red brick and sandstone and has a graceful and proportionate spire. The altar which is neat and tasteful in design is the work of Mr. Newson of Charlottetown. The interior is very nicely finished and is enriched by a handsome set of stations of the cross presented by his Lordship Bishop McIntyre.
The late Lawrence Murphy, his brother Peter Murphy and James Foley were chiefly instrumental in building this church.
A neat railing encloses the glebe, upon which is a very beautiful grove of hardwood trees. The cemetery is beautifully shaded by beech and birch trees and has a neat fence, well kept paths and a central cross.
The situation of the church is very beautiful, it stands upon a high sandstone cliff overlooking the straits of Northumberland, before it stretched the long low expanse of St. Peter's Island, so called from the Comte de St. Pierre, to whom it with the Magdalen Islands, the Island of St. John, the Bird Rocks and Brion Island, was ceded by the king of France in 1719.
Behind the church land, stretching away to Hillsborough Harbour, is historic ground, guarded on the eastern shore by the remains of the once powerful fortress of Port-la-Joie. The earthworks of this old time stronghold are in good preservation, and throughout the surrounding country, the cellars of the French farm houses are still plainly discernable.
In the fortress, during the French occupation, there was a chapel, with a resident chaplain, which proves that South Shore is not a parish of mushroom growth. Long after the ruthless conquerors had levelled the humble dwellings of the fisher farmers of Port-la-Joie with the ground, a priest of noble and distinguished lineage came to Ile St. Jean and took up his residence on a portion of the Farming estate; this priest, who was Abbe de Calonne, brother of the Prime Minister of France, was a resident of the mission of South Shore, more than twenty years before the ancestors of the present settlers had left their homes in the Emerald Isle. When the good people came out Charlottetown was supplied with a church of modest dimensions and in that parish the faithful of South Shore heard mass until their own church was finished. Even at the present time when on Sundays or Holy Days they have no mass in St. Martin's church, they consider themselves bound to be present in St. Dunstan's, and seldom miss when there is any possibility of crossing the long ferry which separates them from the city.
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