year 1830, but may not have been finished until 1833, or as late as 1834. According to the papers of Colin and Jean MacDonald, ”The church was built on land donated by Mr. Worrell, stipulating that a front pew be reserved for his descendants. There was a cabin built for the priest and a shelter built for a horse.” (39) Oral History relays that it was Bishop McEachem who chose the site for this church, the same site that it exists on to this day, because he wanted it to overlook the beautiful St. Peters Bay.

Although initiated by Bishop McEachern, it was the Catholic community who undertook the project to build this church. According to Father Burke, in his Histom of Catholic Churches of PEI:

When it was decided to build a church, elders were chosen, who decided that to raise funds for the work levied an assessment on all householders. The building materials were procured by the inhabitants of the parish, who all entered into the work with hearty good will and energy. They even sawed by hand the boards that were required. The contract for the building was given to Messrs. Long, Large, and Maloney. The dimensions of that church were

thirty feet by fifty feet. (40)

It was only a few years after Bishop McEachern witnessed the building of the first Catholic Church in St. Peters that he died. He was seized with a ‘stroke of paralysis’ in St. Peters and was carried back to his house at St. Andrews, where he died on the 22nd of April, in 1835. (41)

Bishop MacIntyre Photo courtesy of Robbie Thompson