The first Chapel/ Church (1786) at Arichat, Notre Dame de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie, stood where the cannons overlook the harbour below the present Church. This parish served all of the Acadians from Isle Madame and Louisdale. The second Church, Notre Dame de l’Assomption, was built by the Acadians, Irish and Scots. On October 15, 1837 mass was said in a partially completed Church. The work on the church was supervised by Father Jean Baptiste Maranda.
This wooden church was built with the help of ship carpenters from Isle Madame. There is evidence of the knees that are used in the framing of a ship and the work done with the adzes, seen in the steeples and attic of the church. One of those ship carpenters, Michel Boudrot, is buried underneath the Church. The architecture is Gothic Revival and Neo Classical with some Renaissance. Notre Dame de l’Assomption is valued as the oldest surviving Roman Catholic Church in Nova Scotia.
Notre Dame de l’Assomption church was the first cathedral in the present Diocese of Antigonish. The Church became a Cathedral when Pope Gregory decreed that we would be the Diocese of Arichat. This was announced in 1844 and became official in 1845. It was a Cathedral from 1845 to 1886.
Notre Dame is the oldest Catholic parish in Eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. Notre Dame de l’Assomption is also the oldest Acadian parish in the diocese of Antigonish and one of the oldest in Atlantic Canada. It is the second oldest Acadian parish established in Nova Scotia after the Acadians returned to Nova Scotia after the expulsion in 1755.
The big oil painting of Our Lady being assumed into heaven body and soul is in front of the church. It is the most impressive painting in our Church and it was bought in 1858 by Bishop MacKinnon. Captain Dominique Gerroir brought the painting across the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea.
Another important item in our Church is a Henry F. Berger organ that was also bought by Bishop MacKinnon in 1858. In 1849 Henry F. Berger came to the United States, settled in Baltimore, and began building organs and other musical instruments. Berger (1819-1864) was born in Germany or near Toulouse, France and learned organ building from his father. Berger stayed in Baltimore until 1855, and then moved to Jefferson, Pennsylvania and in 1859 to York, Pennsylvania. His factory there prospered, but in 1861 it was completely destroyed by fire, along with three completed instruments that were in the building. Berger suffered a great financial loss, since his insurance did not begin to cover the extent of the destruction.
Our organ is a rare tracker organ. Tracker action is a term used in reference to pipe organs and steam calliopes to indicate a mechanical linkage between keys or pedals pressed by the organist and the valve that allows air to flow into pipe(s) of the corresponding note. The organ is in a gallery-level case at the rear of the room. There are hinged doors that enclose keyboards. There is an attached key desk en fenêtre. The organ is one manual. It has nine stops and slider chests. Mechanical key action and Mechanical stop action. Draw knobs in vertical rows on flat jambs. With no swell or pedal stops, it is typical of the organs built in the 17th and 18th centuries and is one of only two Berger organs known to have survived. A one manual organ built by Berger in 1855 is located in the old Fork Church (P. E.) Hanover County, Virginia.
Hubert’s house was rented by Bishop MacKinnon and it is there that a seminary college was established in 1853. This school moved to Antigonish in 1855 and is now St. Francis Xavier University. We can brag that St F. X. University had its humble beginnings on beautiful Isle Madame.
There is a painting of John the Baptist, baptizing Christ in the river Jordan. He is baptizing Jesus with a sea shell and we see the tree of life in the painting which represents the wooden cross. The red garment on John the Baptist reminds us of the martyrdom that he will suffer at the hands of the wicked Herod. This artwork was painted by Ozias Leduc. A Quebec painter, he was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. [Leduc’ is the artist who decorated St Ninian’s Cathedral in Antigonish; his wall paintings have been undergoing conservation work.] We have other paintings and works of art on the ceiling and all through the inside of our Church. Come visit our beautiful Church.
