Mary Star of the Sea Church or Grand Case Catholic Church (french: Église de Marie Etoile de la Mer; Eglise catholique à Grand Case) is a religious building affiliated to the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

located in

Grand Case Grand Case is a small town on the French side of the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean. It lies on the Anguilla Channel The Anguilla Channel (french: Canal d'Anguilla) is a strait in the Caribbean Sea. It separates the island of Angui ...

in the territorial

collectivity of Saint Martin The Collectivity of Saint Martin (french: Collectivité de Saint-Martin), commonly known as simply Saint Martin (, ), is an overseas collectivity of France in the West Indies in the Caribbean, on – but not identical with – the island of S ...

, a dependent territory of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

that consists of the north half of the island of Saint Martin in the

lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc betwe ...

. It should not be confused with the catholic church of the same name but located in the Dutch sector of the island. The temple follows the Roman or Latin rite, and is a dependant of the Diocese of Basse-Terre (''Dioecesis Imae Telluris et Petrirostrensis'' or ''Diocèse de Basse-Terre et Pointe-à-Pitre'') which was created in 1850 by

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...

and has its seat in the island of Guadalupe, which until 2007 parented all the French territory of the Island of San Martin. Its construction began in parallel to the Catholic Church of Marigot (dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours) in the 1940s. As its name suggests it is dedicated to Saint Mary the mother of God in her invocation of Mary Star of the Sea (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''Stella Maris'').

References

Roman Catholic churches in the Collectivity of Saint Martin Grand Case Roman Catholic churches completed in 1941 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in France {{Caribbean-church-stub

See also

References