The Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel is located on a hill overlooking the

Miramichi River The Miramichi River is a river located in the east-central part of New Brunswick, Canada. The river drains into Miramichi Bay in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The name may have been derived from the Montagnais words "Maissimeu Assi" (meaning Mi'km ...

in the province of

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, Canada. It is the dominant feature of the former town of

Chatham, New Brunswick Chatham is an urban neighbourhood in the city of Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada. Prior to municipal amalgamation in 1995, Chatham was an incorporated town in Northumberland County along the south bank of the Miramichi River opposite Douglasto ...

, and one of the largest churches in Eastern Canada. It is now included within the city of Miramichi that was formed in 1995.

Design

St. Michael's Basilica is among the largest churches in Canada, east of Quebec City. The sandstone

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

structure was designed by the same architect,

Patrick Keely Patrick Charles Keely (August 9, 1816 — August 11, 1896) was an Irish-American architect based in Brooklyn, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island. He was a prolific designer of nearly 600 churches and hundreds of other institutional buildin ...

, as Holy Name Cathedral in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

. St. Michael's Basilica is taller than Holy Name in Chicago, somewhat narrower and about the same length, Holy Name seats about 300 more people (1,520 vs 1,200). Construction of the cathedral started in 1903 and finished in 1921. Italian marble with veined panels was used throughout the interior of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and the sacristy. The spire is visible for several miles, especially when approaching Chatham from the north, across the Centennial Bridge that spans the Miramichi River.

Congregation

St. Michael's

Basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

is a testament to the faith of the Irish Catholics, who immigrated to New Brunswick before the Great Famine. As late as the 1980s, large numbers of worshipers attended daily mass during

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

. The church was one way that the new Catholic immigrants of all ethnic origins maintained their unique identity. When the Irish Catholics came to Canada, 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 The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. These barriers were lifted during the 19th century, but Irish Catholics remained marginalized and banded together to protect their interests, with St. Michael's helping to bring them all together. 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 the area had essentially dried up.

Features

With an austere beauty and pleasing lines, the basilica was built as the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

of a once-extensive Diocese of Chatham, that covered the northern part of the province. The diocese moved to the French-speaking town of Bathurst, approximately north, in 1938, and Sacred Heart Cathedral became the seat of the new Diocese of Bathurst. Notable features of the cathedral are the

Lady chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British English, British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church (building), church. The chapels are also known as ...

to the west of the main church, 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 The Angelus (; Latin for "angel") is a Catholic devotion commemorating the Incarnation of Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ o ...

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.

Designation

The church is unique in that it was the cathedral of the Diocese of Chatham, but lost that distinction when the see moved in 1938. The church was then designated a

pro-cathedral A pro-cathedral or procathedral is a parish church that temporarily serves as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese, or a church that has the same function in a Catholic missionary jurisdiction (such as an apostolic prefecture or apostoli ...

until 1989, when

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

elevated it to a

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

Pastors

List of parish priests since the construction of the basilica:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Michael's Basilica Michael Roman Catholic churches in New Brunswick Buildings and structures in Miramichi, New Brunswick Tourist attractions in Northumberland County, New Brunswick