Successful Initiatives 187 
     
    
   
   
    
     chance, games of skill, raffles and a dance. Lotteries and variety con- 
     
     certs also constituted efficient ways of raising money. In Mont Carmel, 
     
     Father Pierre-Paul Arsenault, a very resourceful priest, started a popular 
     
     way of paying for the construction of a brick church. His gimmick 
     
     consisted of “selling” bricks to donors whose names were inscribed 
     
     in the register for special Masses. His call for funds was explained in 
     
     a leaflet stating the conditions of the donations: 
     
    
   
   
    
     A Generous Appeal to the Devout Servants 
     
     of Notre-Dame de Mont Carmel 
     
     For every five cents donated to the construction of the Church of Notre-Dame 
     
     de Mont Carmel, PE.I., you will have the honour of owning a brick in this 
     
    
   
   
    
     house of God. 
     
     Your names will be kept in a register and you will also have a share in 
     
     the offering of two Masses celebrated each year in this Church. (TR)*° 
     
    
   
   
    
     Father Arsenault indicated the dates for these annual Masses in 
     
     the parish register: one would be said on July 16 for the living benefac- 
     
     tors, the other would be celebrated for the deceased subscribers on 
     
     the first available day after All Saints’ Day. 
     
    

    
     The success of these projects depended essentially on the generos- 
     
     ity of the parishioners who offered their assistance in time, in kind 
     
     and in money. The priest would usually prepare a plan according to 
     
     which the men in the parish would contribute a certain number of 
     
     days of labour towards cutting and transporting lumber, making bricks, 
     
     digging the basement for the building and other such work. Often 
     
     the parishioners would donate farm produce which the priest could 
     
     sell in aid of the building fund. 
     
    

    
     Benefiting from their very enviable prestige and a remarkable 
     
     sense of administration, the clergy generally succeeded in completing, 
     
     with the help of the parishioners, magnificent projects to the honour 
     
     of the Acadian parishes. 
     
    
   
   
    
     SISTERS 
     
    
   
   
    
     We have already seen that from the middle of the nineteenth 
     
     century onwards, teaching sisters contributed a great deal to the edu- 
     
     cational and cultural development on the Island. It will be remembered 
     
     that it was the sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal