Saturday, July 7, 2012

The Cathedrals of Canada - 4. Antigonish

The Diocese of Antigonish recently celebrated the 400th anniversary of the first celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in that place. It is another example of the Canadian phenomenon of transferring the seat of the Diocese. In 1844 the Diocese of Arichat was erected out of the Diocese of Halifax, with the Cathedral of N.D. de l'Assomption at Arichat but the residence of the Bishop from the very beginning had been at Antigonish, to where, in 1886, the seat and name of the Diocese was transferred and when St. Ninian's became the Cathedral. The Diocese covers 7 counties of Northeast Nova Scotia, 3 mainland counties and all of Cape Breton Island. The first Catholic Chapel in Antigonish was built in 1810 by Father Alexander MacDonald. Bishop Plessis named the new mission St. Ninian's in 1812. The first resident pastor was Father Remi Gaulin who came in 1815. Father William Fraser (later Bishop Fraser) became Pastor of Antigonish in 1824 and replaced the chapel with a frame building which could accommodate eight hundred. The cornerstone for the present St. Ninian's was laid on June 29th, 1867, by Rev. Dr. John Cameron, V. G., and was completed in 1874. St. Ninian suggests Scotland and the Cathedral's very fabric incorporates the words "Tigh Dhe" or House of God in Gaelic, inspired, perhaps by Alexander MacDonald of Keppoch, one of the last of the Gaelic poets, who was inspired to versify upon seeing the new Cathedral. The interior is by no means the worst example of the re-orderer's 'art', but the loss of Altar Rails and High Altar (replaced under a monumental canopy by the Bishop's throne) has swept away some of the most harmonious traditional features of the interior.

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