Saint Mary

Saint Mary's Church Point, Nova Scotia

Saint Mary's parish church (église Sainte-Marie), unquestionably North America's largest wooden building, was constructed to handle the burgeoning number of devout Roman Catholic parishioners in 1905. Its pastor at the time, Father Pierre-Marie Dagnaud, C.J.M. (1902-1908), entrusted the building of the church to a local architect, the self- taught master carpenter Léo Melanson, with able assistance from many parishioners. St. Mary's Church was blessed at a sumptuous dedication ceremony by the Apostolic Delegate to Canada, His Excellency Monsignor Sbarretti, in 1905.

Mass in French on Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

Sainte-Marie Pointe-de-l'Église (Nouvelle-Écosse)

Church Information Saint Mary's parish church (église Sainte-Marie), unquestionably North America's largest wooden building, was constructed to handle the burgeoning number of devout Roman Catholic parishioners in 1905. Its pastor at the time, Father Pierre-Marie Dagnaud, C.J.M. (1902-1908), entrusted the building of the church to a local architect, the self- taught master carpenter Léo Melanson, with able assistance from many parishioners. St. Mary's Church was blessed at a sumptuous dedication ceremony by the Apostolic Delegate to Canada, His Excellency Monsignor Sbarretti, in 1905. With its striking beauty and magnitude, St. Mary's Church attracts thousands of tourists annually (approximately 28,000 in 1997), who photograph and admire it from every conceivable angle. Among treasures and furnishings of note to visitors are a precious reliquary, exquisitely crafted by an Acadian artist from the region, and a fine collection of religious and liturgical artifacts exhibited in the museum room (established in 1970). This museum inside the church is open to the public throughout the summer. The lofty church spire reaches a height of 56.36 meters (185 feet), with its cross adding another 1.67 meters (5.6 feet); the nave measures 57.89 meters (190 feet), and the transepts are 41.13 meters (135 feet) in length. The surface area of the church covers 2,207.3 square meters (23,780 square feet). Three bronze bells in the steeple weigh 1,694.22 kilograms (3,740 pounds), and the towering structure is stabilized at its base by 36.24 metric tons (40 English) of stone ballast. Earlier churches in St. Mary's parish history date to the autumn of 1774 when the Abbé Joseph Mathurin Bourg, a missionary-at-large throughout Acadia (now Canada's Maritime Provinces), erected a rough chapel at Grosses Coques, a village of Acadian pioneers in southwestern Nova Scotia's municipality of Clare. The parish name is taken from the splendid St. Mary's Bay along which the church stands, and it likewise is a mark of the parish's devotion to Our Lady of the Assumption, the spiritual patron of Acadians. The initial chapel was replaced by order of the Abbé Bourg in the spring of 1789, when the parish was relocated to Church Point since Acadian settlements were developing further to the south. The second chapel served until 1808, when the first resident pastor, a recusant priest from republican France, built the parish's third church conveniently east of the main road where the parish cemetery is now located, across the highway from the campus of the present Université Sainte-Anne. This first parish curé, Jean Mandé Sigogne, arriving in summer 1799, became literally the founder of St. Mary's. A diligent and exceptionally devoted priest, he set in place the structures a permanent parish needed to survive: its registers, the parish council, an official sacristan, regular catechetical instruction, and so on. In the course of his pastorate, Father Sigone supervised the building of six churches and two presbyteries in the region. He contributed actively to the formal education of parishioners, becoming a significant force in the civil and social recovery of Acadians in southwest Nova Scotia. He was pastor of the parish for 45 years, until he died at the age of 81 in 1844. His remains are interred beneath the elegant marble monument to be found on the grounds of Université Sainte- Anne, in front of the neighboring wooden Gustave-Blanche building nearby the parish church. The present pastor of St. Mary's parish, Father Yvon Dionne, C.J.M., is assisted by a parish council under the direction of Mr. André Valotaire . The parish secretary is Ms. Dorothy Thibodeau , whose office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Other members of the parish council are: Julien Comeau, Charles Blinn, Lucille LeBlanc, Edouard Comeau, Neil Boucher, and Bernie Comeau. Mass is celebrated on Sundays at 10 a.m. A schedule of liturgical feasts and other services is available from the parish secretary. The telephone number of the parish office is (902) 769-2832 , and the fax number (902) 769-0048. Postal address: Paroisse Sainte-Marie Pointe-de-l'Église (NS) Canada B0W 1M0 For additional information about St. Mary's Parish and its noteworthy church, consult the publication: L'Eglise Ste-Marie, 1905-1980. This 156-page history is the result of a project the parish initiated to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the dedication of St. Mary's church.