THE HISTORY OF THE ST. PATRICK’s CHURCH IN GRANDBAY part 7

by Bernard Lauwyck updated March 2, 2022

The tribune or choirloft anno 2009, originally erected by Fr. Stanislas REMAUD in 1930.

There is an interesting story about Fr. REMAUD FMI which I want to share with you: Grandbay was a place where dysentery was present for many years with deadly result. “all the water for drinking purposes had to be got from the Geneva river, which is badly contaminated ….Fortunately, the Government has stepped in, and will soon provide GrandBay with pure drinking water. The piping for the waterworks have arrived and were shipped to Grand Bay last week. The sooner the works is done, the better for all concerned” [The Dominica Chronicle March 19, 1930].

We are not sure if the works were started before the ravages caused by the hurricane on September 1, 1930.

Almost 10 months later, Fr. Remaud took the initiative to get the project restarted :
“To the energetic Dean of Grand Bay belongs the credit of having conceived the idea to go,in procession to the seashores after Vespers, to bless the new pipes and then to appeal to the goodwill of the people to carry them up [to the heights of the village]. Thus said, thus done.” [The Dominica Chronicle January 14, 1931]. It was reported that Fr. Remaud got sick after this event.

This story illustrates the leadership role of the french priests and the FMI Fathers’
interest in the material improvement and welfare of their parishioners :
While visiting several Parishes in Dominica Musgrave Edwards wrote the following in The Dominica Chronicle [April 1938]: “I shall have ….to mention the deep interest, and not infrequently at considerable personal sacrifice and hard work, which the Parish Priests take in the material improvement and welfare of the villages and the people. The welfare of the people and improvement of their surroundings and conditions have been the special care of the church and her clergy ….”

I also quote Dr Lennox Honychurch : “to all intents and purpose it was the Church,
through the FMI priests, which provided leadership in the mountainous wilds of Dominica.” [THE DOMINICA STORY page 176 ]

Another illustration of this we read in the Ecclesiastical Bulletin of Roseau: during the
second world war the people of Grandbay are extorted by the clergy “to plant, plant, plant ground provisions lest, if the war drags on and the ships are diverted from the West Indian route, we be left without food.”

In February 1938 there were “numerous earthquakes” in Dominica and again the Grandbay presbytery was damaged. [Dominica Chronicle 22 Feb. 1938]

In 1939 war clouds were gathering over Europe and the weekly dominican newspapers were keeping the people informed about the growing threat of a second world war and each new development.
A week before the second world war started, Grandbay was however in festive mood:
On Saturday the 26th of August, 1939 Fr. Joseph O. Bowers, “the first native priest”, from Mahaut and newly ordained as priest , visited Grandbay. The church at Grandbay was important to him as this was the place where he confirmed his call to the priesthood.
The next day, “Sunday the 27th August , .. was an epochal day in the history of the parish church. Rev. Fr. Joseph O. Bowers celebrated the First Communion Mass…The church was packed with parishioners and many visitors and excursionists from nearby villages and Roseau. Rev. father Remaud, who was filled with emotion, occupied the pulpit, welcomed the celebrant and eulogised him, stating inter alia that if the Mahaut church was the church of the young priest’s First Communion and calling to the priesthood, the Grand Bay church was the one in which he had affirmatively answered the Divine Call.” [The Dominica Chronicle September 6, 1939]. Young Joseph Bowers was teaching at Grandbay Government School at that time (1927-1928). He later became the Bishop of Accra in Ghana (1953-1971) and the first bishop of the Diocese of St. John’s-Basseterre in 1971. He retired in 1981, spent almost 10 years in Dominica and afterwards returned to Ghana for his final years.

Germany invaded Poland on the first of September 1939 and as a consequence the
British Empire declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939 . Dominica, a colony
of the British Empire, called a general mobilisation of the troops.

The headline of the Dominica Chronicle of Saturday 2nd September 1939 read

“ WAR IN EUROPE
MOBILIZATION IN DOMINICA
WHOLE FORCE PARADES AT FORT YOUNG”