Previously a mission church of the Parish of East Pubnico, St. Thomas Catholic Church has been the parish church of St. Thomas Parish since 1956. The building itself was completed in August, 1881 and substantially altered and enlarged since that time.
To the west of the building is the Catholic cemetery, containing what appears to be just short of 100 headstones. The oldest, dating from the 1880s, indicate that the cemetery was established more or less concurrently with the church. Contemporary dates on stones in the cemetery indicate that it is still in use today. While this is a relatively old cemetery,
there are two in Shelburne, the
Old Kirk Burying Ground and
Christ Anglican Church Cemetery, which are a century older still.
Find a Grave knows of only 16 of the graves within, but several of those are from prior to 1900.