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 St. Peter's Cathedral - Charlottetown, PEI Posted by:  ScroogieII
N 46° 14.030 W 063° 07.961
20T E 489769 N 5120037
Holding its first services on June 13th, 1869, the Gothic Revival St. Peter's was consecrated a Cathedral on the Feast of St. Peter, June 29, 1879.
Waymark Code: WM141JM
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Date Posted: 03/28/2021
Views: 4
Perhaps lesser known than its chapel, All Souls' Chapel, St. Peter's is substantially larger and 19 years older. While the chapel is built of red Island sandstone, St. Peter's is built almost entirely of brick, with a minimal amount of stone trim. One of the smallest Cathedrals in Canada, it gives the appearance of a much younger building. Bearing a minimum of embellishment, its style could be deemed Gothic Revival, if only for the Gothic arched doors and windows, the steeply pitched gable roof, several stone capped buttresses, and the prominent tower centered on the front. The only opening which breaks from this style is the large rose window in the face of the bell tower over the stone framed Gothic main entrance, but even that is characteristic of Gothic Architecture. The bell tower has a single recessed panel occupying the majority of each face and ends in a flat topped steeple. No spire soaring to the sky to be found on this Cathedral.
The main entrance to St. Peter's is centered in the cathedral's brick bell tower, beneath the rose window. The entrance extends only slightly from the tower and is surmounted by a steeply pitched gabled pediment. Under the pediment is a heavy Gothic arch of stone, likely freestone, a type of sandstone found locally. Beneath the arch are two pilasters of the same stone which, were they free standing, would be octagonal columns with Doric capitals and bases. Recessed behind the arch and the pilasters is a wood door comprised of vertical wood planks, hanging on six ornate iron hinges. Atop the door is a Gothic transom filled with heavy wood tracery, a double trefoil and two circles, all filled with stained glass.
St. Peter's Cathedral, Charlottetown, was built in 1869 as a 'Chapel of Ease' to St. Paul's, the Parish Church on Queen's Square. It began as a convenience for poor people living at "The Bog" near Governor's Pond. Bishop Hibbert Binney, the 4th Bishop of Nova Scotia, whose Letters Patent from the Crown gave him episcopal jurisdiction in Prince Edward Island, made it his Cathedral on the Island in 1879.
The founding of St. Peter's was directly linked to a theological and liturgical revival of the Catholic tradition within Anglicanism, known as the Oxford Movement or Tractarian Movement. This Movement began in England in the 1830's, and spread throughout the Anglican Communion worldwide. By the 1860's, some parishioners of the already long-established St. Paul's Church, in Charlottetown, had been exposed to the Oxford Movement through their travels, and wanted to erect a new church building where the teachings and liturgical observances of that movement could be reflected and practiced.
Land for the new church was made available by Mr.William Cundall, and construction began in 1867. By the spring of 1869, the building was completed, and Mr. Cundall then officially gave the land to the church on June 1st, 1869. The opening services were held on June 13th of that year, but the Cathedral was not consecrated until the Feast of St. Peter, June, 29, 1879. It was constructed in an area of the city known as West Bog. "This neighbourhood was considered disreputable", we are told. Today, however, it is known as an ideal and central location, standing as it does, directly across the street from our Provincial Government Building.
From St. Peter's Cathedral
Type of material of the door: Wood
Functional door?: Yes
Location of this door/way: On public property
Is it accessable only by paid admission": No
Style: Gothic
Address or physical location:
7 All Souls Lane
Charlottetown, PEI Canada
C1A 1P9
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