The forest was cleared and work began on the church in 1882. By June 6, 1883 it was sufficiently complete to hold its first mass. For a new parish in a sparsely settled land, this turned out to be a rather large building. Being a fan particularly of handsome steeples, this one is a bit of a treat. Gothic Revival in general style, it stands atop a square bell tower which is set almost completely into the gable roof. From the belfry up the spire becomes octagonal and has a row of four gablets above the four gables of the belfry. Quite tall and thin, the spire ends in a small wooden cross.
Today the church, in spite of a close brush with being closed by the diocese, the church continues to thrive. It has obviously been the recipient of a lot of TLC in its life, as it remains in quite good condition today.
The close brush came about recently when assessments by the Diocese of Antigonish indicated that the building was in sufficiently poor condition as to be hazardous. The diocese had concluded that the cost of rehabilitation, about $350,000, couldn't be justified and it was contemplating closing the church. Parishioners, however, had their own assessments done, the results of which painted a less dark picture, estimating the cost of restoration to be nearer $125,000. After convincing the diocese not to close the church, the parish quickly raised $80,000 of the estimated $125,000 required less than three weeks. Several
news articles in the Halifax Chronicle Herald covered the story.
Below is a history of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, from
A History of Stellarton, by Aubrey Dorrington, digitised and published online by
Nova Story Digital Collections.
Our Lady of Lourdes
The present Lourdes Church was built during the pastorate of Father William B. MacDonald. "Father William", as he was affectionately called by all who knew him, was "The Maker of Lourdes". He was ordained to the Priesthood on the 28th of May, 1876. On June 15th in the same year he was given charge of the Parish where he accomplished so much.
Where now stands the prosperous and flourishing little community of Lourdes, there was at the time of Father William's pastorate nothing but the forest primeval. In May 1882, after clearing away the woods the new church was started by him, and on June 6, 1883, Holy Mass was offered in it for the first time and the church was called "Our Lady of Lourdes", from which the community took its name. He named the four streets of the village Marie, Emmanuel, St. Bernard and St Joseph.
On Nov. 21st, 1882, the Sister's of Charity took up teaching duties in the Parish. In 1883, the convent and Glebe was completed. Father William encouraged his parishioners to build and establish themselves in the immediate vicinity of the school so that the children could benefit more from the teaching of the sisters. A parish hall was built in 1892. (It was razed in 1926 and a new hall was built.) Through the efforts of Father William a railway station was built at Lourdes where the local trains stopped and the mail was received twice daily. At first the Post Office was located in the convent and the revenue received was used to defray the cost of running the parish. His last big project in the Parish in assisting the Sister's of Charity in erecting a Tuberculosis Sanitorium. (Due to lack of patients the Sanitarium was sold and converted into tenements in the late 1960's. In 1973 it was lost by fire.)
The Parish suffered a grevious loss in 1880 when 27 of the parishioners were killed in the Foord Pit explosion and again in 1918 when many more were killed in the Allan Shaft explosion. Father William died on the 24 of July 1918. He was succeeded by Rev. J.A. Butts, the builder of St. Bridget's School. To use the words
of one of his biographers "Father William was a man of worth and work, a man big and broad minded and a man beloved by all classes and breeds, both Protestants and Catholics alike. May his name remain forever engraved on the record grateful memory".
The Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes gave life to new parishes in New Glasgow, Westville and Thorburn. Thorburn and Egerton were separated from Lourdes Parish in 1884 and Westville in 1903. The Lourdes Parish had appended to it between 1892 and 1900, a small Catholic Church in Bridgeville which ministered to the Catholics who worked there in the iron ore mines. It was built by Sandy MacDonald, the pastor was Father Roderick MacDonald. With the closing of the iron ore mines the people drifted away and in 1920 the church was razed.
From A History of Stellarton, Page 70