St. Patrick’s Church Graveyard - Sydney, Nova Scotia - Churchyard Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

Adjacent to the church (on the north side) is a very small graveyard with the earliest gravestone dating from 1798.

Here is the inscription on one of them:

"IN LOVING MEMORY
OF
BRIDGET KAVANAGH
WIFE OF
NICHOLAS H. MARTIN
BORN AT ST PETERS
DIED AT SYDNEY
FEB. 24, 1857
REST IN PEACE
ERECTED BY HER SON ROBERT"

From Canada's Historic Places website:

"DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
St. Patrick’s Church is a one and one half storey, Gothic Revival style stone building. Located in Sydney, Nova Scotia, the Church was built between 1828-1830 and is the oldest standing Roman Catholic Church in eastern Nova Scotia. Adjacent to the church is a small graveyard with the earliest gravestone dating from 1798. The church, cemetery and surrounding property are included in the designation.

HERITAGE VALUE
St. Patrick’s Church is valued for its age and its role in the history of the Roman Catholic Church on Cape Breton Island. St. Patrick’s Church is the oldest Roman Catholic Church on Cape Breton Island. The church was erected between 1828-1830 due to the efforts of Sydney’s first Roman Catholic parish priest, Father Henry MacKeagney. By 1828 the small Sydney congregation had raised enough money to replace their original wooden church with the present stone church. The Catholic community continued to grow in Sydney and eventually became too big for the small stone church. Restorations on the church began in 1855, with the addition of balconies on three sides, and a raised sanctuary was erected at the south end of the church. By 1872, the congregation had once again become too big for St. Patrick’s and the decision was made to build another church. Sacred Heart was erected and the congregation left St. Patrick’s, but returned after a fire in 1876 destroyed the newly built Sacred Heart. The congregation again occupied St. Patrick’s while the new church was rebuilt. St. Patrick’s was kept as the church hall once Sacred Heart was completed. Adjacent to the St. Patrick’s Church is a small graveyard, which is also designated and it pre-dates the church with its oldest grave dated 1798.

St. Patrick’s Church is also valued for its long association with the development of the City of Sydney and the city’s Maronite community. During the first decades of the twenith century a large number of Lebanese and Syrian families immigrated to Nova Scotia. The largest population was located in North Sydney. The majority of the Lebanese and Syrian immigrants were Maronites; members of one of the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church. In 1912, under Father Saoib, the Lebanese Maronite community began to use St. Patrick’s Church. St. Patrick’s is believed to be the first permanent place of worship for the Maronite community in Nova Scotia. The church was abandoned in 1950 following Father Saoib’s retirement. In 1966 the Old Sydney Society established a museum there as a means of preserving the Church. It remains open today as a museum." (visit link)

Name of church or churchyard: St. Patrick’s Church Approximate Size: Very Small (1-10)

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