[PHOTO] Angus Bernard MacEachern, bishop, remembered at St. Dunstan's Basilica
Erected quite recently on the property of St. Dunstan's Basilica, on the southwest corner of Great George Street and Sydney, is a monument to Angus Bernard MacEachern, the first Roman Catholic bishop on Prince Edward Island.
Scottish by birth, from his arrival in Atlantic Canada in 1790 MacEachern played a leading role in building the Roman Catholic Church in the British Atlantic colonies, a community fragmented by ethnicity as well as by geography. His death in 1835 left an institutionally strong church, one of its legacies being the St. Dunstan's University that eventually evolved into the modern University of Prince Edward Island. Based on his legacy, many locals would recommend him for sainthood.
(See yesterday's photo post to get a better sense of the setting of the monument.)
The plaque for Bishop MacEachern's monument has the below passage in four languages: English, French, Scots Gaelic, and Mi'kmaq.
"Angus Bernard MacEachern (1759-1835), first Bishop of the Diocese of Charlottetown, founded St. Andrew's College, the first post-secondary institution in the colony, on 30 November 1831. In January 1855, the college was re-located and re-opened in Charlottetown as St. Dunstan's College (later University), which has carried on the rich tradition of Roman Catholic education in the province."