St. Michael's Basilica, Miramichi

St. Michael's Basilica, more properly the Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel, is located on a hill overlooking the Miramichi River in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada. It is the dominant feature of the former Town of Chatham, New Brunswick and one of the largest churches in eastern Canada. It is now in the new City of Miramichi.

Design

Prior to Newfoundland entering Confederation in 1949, St. Michael's was the largest church in Canada, east of Quebec City.

The sandstone neo-Gothic structure was designed by the same architect (P. Keely) as Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, Ste. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Providence, Rhode Island and the Church of the Gesu (Montreal). St. Michael's is 15 feet taller than Holy Name in Chicago, but is somewhat narrower. They are about the same length. Holy Name seats about 300 more people ( 1,520 vs 1,200).

Construction

Construction on the cathedral started in 1903 and it was finished in 1921. Italian marble with veined panels was used throughout the interior of the nave and the sacristy.

The people it served

Rather like a medieval town in having an outsized church, Chatham was long known as a stronghold of Catholicism. St.Michael's Basilica is a testament to the faith of the Irish, Highland Scottish and French Acadian Roman Catholics of Chatham. It is visible for miles especially as Chatham is approached from the north, across the Centennial Bridge spanning the Miramichi River.

The Catholic faith lingered in Chatham much longer than most areas. As late as the 1980s the parish was getting large numbers of people attending daily mass during Lent. That has recently fallen off as young people have moved away, the birth rates have fallen and the older faithful have passed on. The reasons for the lasting strength of Catholicism are complex, but can be found in the different positions of the Catholic Church among the French and the Irish in eastern Canada. The term Irish Catholic in the Miramichi Valley must be understood to include a significant Highland Scottish minority, who from earliest times intermarried with the Irish.

The Irish in Canada saw themselves as a persecuted minority. This started in the old country. The English, originally alien invaders, became with the Reformation schismatics as well as conquerors, bent on the destruction of Catholicism, the Irish language and culture. The Church was one of the ways that the Irish maintained their identity in the face of repression and persecution.

When the Irish came to Canada, they were followed by their priests, and met the same systematic discrimination. Unlike their counterparts in the United States, they were barred from public office and the professions. They were required in the early days to tithe to the Church of England. These barriers were lifted during the 19th century, but the sense remained of Irish Catholics as a minority who needed to band together to protect their interests. Because the Irish were a much more restless people than the French Canadians, always moving on to places with better opportunities, the lay people were more independent and leadership in political affairs was always in the hands of the laity. And the Irish Church was never, in modern times, wealthy, so the priests tended to be people with a genuine sense of call who lived in relatively modest material circumstances. The three factors, keeping a distance from politics, a relatively modest life style and an often genuine sense of call, enhanced the credibility of the Irish clergy. And there tended, in the Miramichi Valley, to be relatively few examples of clerical scandal, and of those, none involved molesting children and youths. The few examples were of more conventional weaknesses, such as a fondness for drink and taking too great an interest in widows. The recreations of the clergy tended to be similar to those of the people, i.e., baseball, hockey, hunting and fishing.

The circumstances of the French Church in Acadia were very different. It had a history of being the established church in France. It was in the same position in the new world for 160 years. Clergy were a privileged class, and religious life was an avenue for material advancement for bright young males and females from poorer families. When the English conquered Canada, under the threat of American rebellion, they soon made a deal with the French clergy, religious tolerance for political support. The French population was much less mobile than the Irish, living in farming and fishing villages with a large church dominating the area physically and socially. The priests interfered in politics regularly, backing the Liberal Party of Canada which they relied on to protect their interests. But the interests of the clergy and the people diverged over time. Too many of the priests lived in huge parish homes with servants, drove large cars and departed for Europe after the Christmas or Easter collections were in. And there was a legacy of scandals suppressed. When things opened up in the 1960s, the people abandoned the church in droves.

The Irish clergy retained their prestige and Church attendance only slowly fell.

The parish served by St. Michael's had a long history of providing priests for the area and sending others to the foreign missions or to Western Canada. By 1975, however, vocations to the priesthood from Chatham and area had essentially dried up.

Features

With an austere beauty and pleasing lines, the Basilica was built as the cathedral of a once extensive Diocese of Chatham covering the northern part of the Province. The Diocese was relocated to the French speaking town of Bathurst in 1938.

Notable features of the Cathedral are a Lady Chapel to the west, a tall single spire (once illuminated by the Canadian Air Force because of the proximity of a fighter base) a green copper roof and a matching Bishop's Palace to the southeast. Its great bells, whether tolling a funeral, sounding the Angelus or joyously ringing in Easter or Christmas have long been a feature of life in the town.

A fine stand of linden trees, planted by Bishop James Rogers, stands to the east of the basilica, in front of the palace.

The church seats 1,200 people.

Designation

The church is somewhat unique in that it started as the cathedral of the Diocese of Chatham. When that diocese became the Diocese of Bathurst in 1936, the church became a pro-cathedral, as the bishop now resided in Bathurst, a predominately French speaking community some 45 miles north. Many years later, because of its beauty and position in the life of the people of the area, it was designated a basilica

Pastors

List of parish priests since the construction of the Basilica: note the prevalence of Irish and Scottish names

*Monsignor Michael O'Keefe................1904-1934 died in office; very much the old school Irish priest
*Reverend Burns........... ....................1934-1946 died in office; a quiet man
*Reverend William J. Wallace............. 1946-1961; Chatham native who lived from 1899 to 1985. Lou Gehrig's Disease for last 26 years of his life
*Reverend Lynn McFadden..................1961-197 deceased; formerly rector of St. Thomas University when in Chatham. Originally from Bouctouche, New Brunswick
*Reverend Bernard M.Broderick...........197?-198? died 2006, active until close to the end; worked in the cooperative movement when younger. Originally from Kedgwick River, New Brunswick.
*Reverend Peter Bagley......................active ministry elsewhere
*Reverend Leon Creamer.....................active, semi retired; Miramichi native
*Reverend Leo Sullivan........................active ministry elsewhere; Chatham born
*Reverend Joseph Daley..................... active ministry in Northwest Territories; originally from Barnaby River
*Reverend Paul Riley.......................
*Reverend John Fraser...................... incumbent-August 2007; originally from Loggieville