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The Catholic Church in Victoria

Father Francis Norbert Blanchet and Father Modeste Demers were the first Roman Catholic priests to visit the Pacific Northwest following the departure of the Spanish. Father Jean-Baptiste Bolduc was the first priest to visit the site of present day Victoria. He arrived with James Douglas in 1843; while Douglas searched for a location in which to establish Fort Victoria, Father Bolduc held the area’s first Catholic mass on March 18, 1843.

Bishop Demers was appointed Bishop of Vancouver Island in 1847. He visited Victoria before departing on a lengthy trip to amass funds for his far-reaching mission field. In 1849, during Bishop Demers’ absence, Reverend Honore Lempfrit of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.) arrived in Victoria, where he began a school. 

Bishop Demers returned to Victoria in 1852 and built a rectory and, in 1858, a small church, later the first Roman Catholic Cathedral in BC, where he held services. Not only did the work of the Sisters of St Ann grow in Victoria, but so too did that of other branches of the Catholic Church. New schools, churches and missions opened across Vancouver Island and throughout St Joseph’s Province, and the imposing edifice of St Andrews, Victoria’s main cathedral, opened in 1892.
Bishop Demers’, first residence in Victoria, about 1860.

Bishop Demers’, first residence in Victoria, about 1860.

BC Archives, A-2581
First Roman Catholic Church with Bishop’s residence, about 1875.

First Roman Catholic Church with Bishop’s residence, about 1875.

BC Archives, A-02582.
French Hospital, Bishop’s residence and church, about 1875.

French Hospital, Bishop’s residence and church, about 1875.

BC Archives, A-03419.
St Andrews Cathedral, Victoria, about 1895.

St Andrews Cathedral, Victoria, about 1895.

BC Archives, F-09781.

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