History of Saint Anne of the Pines Parish
Sainte-Anne-des-Pins
14 Beech Street, Sudbury, ON P3C 1Z2
Telephone: 705-674-1947
https://https://www.steannedespins.ca/
The Beginning of the Sudbury Mission
By the time the construction of Canadian Pacific’s transcendental railway reached Northeastern Ontario in 1883 (then known as New Ontario), Jesuit Missionaries were already long established in Canada working for the conversion of the Indigenous population to Christianity and providing for the spiritual needs of European settlers.
As the construction of the Railway’s transcontinental line neared the Sudbury area, the railway made an appeal to the Jesuits for help in overseeing the railway workers spiritual needs in Sudbury.
Fathers Joseph Specht and Francis Xavier Santerre answered the railway’s call with the first Mass being said in Sudbury on March 30, 1883 by Father Specht. Both men were missionary priests with their home parish being Holly Cross Parish in Wikwemikong, Ontario. Holy Cross Parish would remain the mother church to the Sudbury Mission until 1889.
The First Chapel
Soon after, Father Jean-Baptiste Nolin would relieve Father Specht as the Director of the Sudbury Mission.
In April of 1883 Father Nolin began construction of a rectory which included a sizable chapel built in the attic of the rectory. The rectory and chapel were completed by the end of November and was inaugurated at Christmas. At the time, the chapel provided for the spiritual needs of about 50 families in Sudbury.
In 1884, fellow Jesuits Father Francis-Xavier Santerre and Louis S. Côté joined Father Nolin. The three divided the responsibility of ministering to the faithful with Father Côté working to the east of Sudbury and Father Santerre working to the west of Sudbury (along the Algoma Mills Railway Line). Father Nolin assumed responsibility for Sudbury itself and the northern portion of the railway’s main line. Inspired by the magnificent pine trees growing around the rectory, Father Nolin named his mission “Sainte-Anne-des-Pins”.
The Mother Parish of Sainte-Anne-des-Pins resided with Holly Cross Parish in Wikwemikong, Ontario, which was in the Diocese of Peterborough.
The First Church and a new Parish is born
It did not take long for the rectory chapel to outgrow the needs of the faithful. Therefore, in the fall of 1887, under Mission Director Father Hormidas Caron, construction began on a new church with the consecration of the first stone by Monsignor Thomas Joseph Dowling, Bishop of Peterborough. Construction of the new church was completed two years later with the first Mass being said on May 5, 1889 by Father Hormidas Caron.
With the completion of the new Sainte-Anne-des-Pins Church in 1889, the status of the Mission was upgraded to Parish and saw its clergy increase by three new members.
Sainte-Anne-des-Pins was more than just a Parish church. The building also contained a school and a parish hall.
Disaster strikes the church
Just five years later, on March 23, 1894, the church caught fire and was destroyed.
The Second Church of Saint Anne
The church’s reconstruction began in May of 1894. By November, the construction of the new, smaller church was completed. Father D.A. O’Connor dedicated The newly built Sainte-Anne-des-Pins on November 4, 1894.
Completion of the new church was made possible with the overwhelming support, both physical manpower and financial assistance, by both Catholics and non Catholics. The effort was truly a spirit of community harmony that existed at the time.
The Parish was the mother church to many other missions
Sainte-Anne-des-Pins Parish was responsible for the following areas which mainly followed the railway;
1. Sudbury to North Bay;
2. Sudbury to Chapleau;
3. Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie; and
4. Powassen to Hornepayne.
In order to serve all Catholics within such a large territory, the Parish built a number of mission churches in the various towns that sprung up along the railway. Among the missions was St. Francis Xavier Church in Cartier. The mission was established in 1893 with the first Mass being said on September 26th, 1893 with the baptism of Anthony Chrusoskie Jr. St. Francis Xavier remained a mission of St. Anne’s until 1925 when the Jesuits asked the Diocese of the Sault Ste Marie to take the responsibility of the Mission from them.
With such a large territory and few priests, the Jesuits still managed to hold Mass at the various mission churches within its territory at least once a month.
The Dioceses of Sault Ste. Marie was born
On September 16, 1904, the Holy See split the Diocese of Peterborough in two by erecting the Diocese of Sault Ste Marie, appointing Bishop David Scollard as the first Bishop. The new Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie assumed Sainte-Anne-des-Pins Parish and its surrounding missions.
That same year saw the construction of Jubilee Hall. The hall was built alongside Sainte-Anne-des-Pins.
The Parish community continued to grow (and split)
Sainte-Anne-des-Pins Parish started as French Parish. However, by 1906 of the 400 families that attended the parish, nearly half were English speaking and rifts began to form between the English and French parishioners.
It quickly became evident that the English parishioners needed their own parish, so on May 13, 1914, Bishop Scollard decided to split Sainte-Anne’s parish, creating a new parish for the English parishioners. The French parishioners would retain the use of Sainte-Anne’s parish.
Opinions were divided on how to handle the needs of the English parishioners until the new parish could be established. As more and more people were attending Masses, Bishop Scollard approved plans on June 4, 1914 to delay the formation of the new parish and, instead, opt for enlarging the existing parish church. Renovations to Sainte Anne’s were completed and a dedication was held by the Bishop on February 24, 1915.
As result of an agreement signed on August 15, 1915 by Ste. Anne des Pins Parish, Jubilee Hall was renovated to become the new English speaking church. On September 23, 1917, the renovations were completed. The new church was named St. Joseph’s Parish. Reverend Dean Crowley became the first pastor for the new church. St. Joseph’s would later become Christ The King.
In addition to serving the French and English Catholic Community, Saint Anne, until about 1928, also served the needs of the Ukrainian Catholics. Saint Anne often accommodated Ukrainian priests and services.
Saint Anne would see two more splits in its history with the creation of Saint-Jean-de-Brébeuf in 1930 and Saint-Eugène in 1949.
Fire strikes a second time
On June 27, 1992, a fire set by an arsonist in a shed at the rear of the church raged through the night and completely destroyed Paroisse Ste-Anne-des-Pins. Although the walls and the bell tower remained standing, it was later determined by engineers the walls would have to be knocked down, since the bricks, due to the excessive heat, had become too weak to withstand a rebuild.
After the devastation at Ste-Anne-Des-Pins, masses were held next door in the basement of the Church of Christ the King while plans were made for a new church to rise from the ashes as its predecessor had 98 years before. In the end, it took four years of hard work before a new church was designed and built.
