Church and Spiritual Life

The parish structures of the Catholic Church have played a major role in the development of the Evangeline Region. Until fairly recently, most organizations revolved around their respective parish. Nowadays they are more centred on the needs of the Region as a whole.

The vitality of a parish depended to a great extent on the priest, who served both as a spiritual and a community leader. As such, he benefited from an elevated social status and wielded considerable authority, which was rarely challenged. Some priests not only made a significant contribution to the economic and cultural development of their parish, but also promoted the French language and the Acadian identity.

The clergy played an influential role in the parishes of the Evangeline Region for at least a century - in other words, from 1865, when the first resident priest arrived, until the 1960s, when the reforms of the Vatican Council II took place. Father Pierre-Paul Arsenault and Father Francois-Xavier Gallant are especially remembered for their architectural legacy. They are responsible for the grandiose churches in Mont-Carmel and Egmont Bay.

The Church in Egmont Bay, around 1930. This, the fourth Saint-Philippe and Saint-Jacques Church, was built in 1923. The French Renaissance-style plans were drawn by the Charlottetown architec- tural firm of C.B. Chappell & J. M. Hunter. The bricks, made in near-by Richmond, proved to be of poor quality so the exterior was covered with stucco in 1944. The bell towers had to be replaced with wooden structures. The church features a Casavant organ with two keyboards dating from 1895. The self-taught New-Brunswick painter Edouard Gautreau (1906-1992) decorated the interior in 1954 and donated two large paint- ings depicting the Sacred Heart and the Holy Family. They hang above the side altars. The presbytery was built in 1886 under the direction of James McNally. The attractive veranda around the house was demolished in 1975. (Georges Arsenault Collection)