Saint Ninian's Cathedral - Antigonish, NS - Bell Towers on Waymarking.com

St. Ninian Cathedral is the Episcopal seat for the Catholic Diocese of Antigonish, which includes Antigonish, Pictou, and Guysborough counties and the Cape Breton Island. This see was first created in 1844 as the Diocese of Arichat with the seat at Arichat in southeastern Cape Breton. The bishops usually lived in Antigonish and in 1886 the see was officially renamed the Diocese of Antigonish, making the parish church of St. Ninian the official Cathedral.

The present Cathedral is the third church to serve the people of Antigonish. The town started its ecclesiastical history as a mission of St. Margaret's Parish, Arisaig. St. Margaret's, the first Catholic parish in this county, had been founded in 1792 by Scottish immigrants. In 1810, the first Catholic chapel in town was built southwest of the present Bank of Nova Scotia. This was under the patronage of St. John, but in 1812 it was renamed St. Ninian, and the parish got a resident priest in 1815. To serve the growing population, in 1824 new St. Ninian Church, 72' long, 45' wide, with a spire of 110' high and capacity of 800 people, was built. This building served the community for fifty years.

In October 1865 Bishop Colin MacKinnon presented the idea of a new stone church to the parishioners who approved the plan. Two possible sites were considered, one being that of the present St. Martha's Hospital, and the other the present location of the Cathedral. October 22, 1866, Bishop MacKinnon turned the first sod for the excavation trenches and the hauling of stone from the quarries in North Grant and Biierly Brook began.

On June 29, 1867, two days before Confederation Day, the cornerstone was laid and the foundation blessed by Very Rev. Dr. John Cameron, then Rector of the Cathedral in Arichat and Vicar General of the Diocese.

The edifice, 170' long by 70' broad, is of local limestone and sandstone in Roman Basilica style. It has two square towers each 125' high. It was constructed in seven years at a cost of 40,000 pounds, which would vary in value from $160,000 to $200,000. The seating capacity was for 1,500. The organ, composed of 700 pipes, is an imposing instrument, bought from Messer Hook of Boston. The bells, cast in Dublin, were dedicated to St. Ninian, St. Joseph, St. Columba, and St. Margaret of Scotland and suspended in the western tower in August 1874.

St. Ninian Cathedral was dedicated on Sunday, September 13, 1874, with much elaborate liturgical celebration. Although the people had referred to the new Church as a Cathedral from the time is was begun, it did not officially become a cathedral until the seat of the Diocese was moved to Antigonish from Arichat in 1886. The remains of two of the founding bishops, MacKinnon and Fraser, rest in tombs in a vault beneath the sanctuary.

The interior decoration, carried out in 1899, was done by Ozias LeDuc, a Quebec artist who had studied in Paris. Some of the paintings are believed to be free adaptions of works by Bonnat and Hofman, two 19th century European artists.

Over the center isle are frescoes depicting the three mysteries of the Catholic faith: the Nativity, the Crucifixion and the Ascension plus a fourth depicting Christ as the Good Shepherd. Between the arches at the sides of the main isle ceiling are frescoes of the apostles and some early saints also by LeDuc. The Stations of the Cross, painted on canvas affixed to the walls, are by LeDuc or one of his students.

The large painting of St. Ninian at the rear of the Church on the "Epistle" side is the oldest in the Church. It was executed by an Italian artist, Apollonio, as a commission from Bishop Colin MacKinnon, and placed in the Church of St. Ninian on Main Street in 1857. The painting was moved to the Cathedral on its completion in 1874. Notice how the slave is depicted as being emancipated by Christian faith and placed on an equal level with his master, the highland chief. This painting was carefully restored by experts in 1957.