Charlottetown's Catholic diocese to celebrate 200 years with archives makeover

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlottetown will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2029, and it's already starting to get ready by launching a major makeover of the church archives. 

Archivist Debra Majer has spent the last three weeks sorting through a dusty room of artifacts — and along the way, she found some treasures. 

"I have been organizing the layers of history that have accumulated over many, many, many years and even now centuries, because the diocese is embarking on their 200th anniversary in 2029," said Majer, who's the archivist for the Roman Catholic Diocese of London in southwestern Ontario. 

"Coming into this job, it was a little overwhelming because there was layers of history in this very room."

Majer was invited to come to Charlottetown by Bishop Joe Dabrowski, who was posted in London before coming to the Island. 

"Twenty years ago, when I entered the diocese of London, it was in a similar state, but without as many artifacts and historic records," Majer said. 

"There is a wonderful historian here in the diocese, and it's Father Art O'Shea, who has done a tremendous job collecting history."

'It's a people story'

Majer said the archive brings together the stories of the people who have long supported the church on Prince Edward Island. 

"It's a social story, it's a people story. This collection is a story about all these different wonderful communities across the Island and of course, Charlottetown," Majer said. 

With a combination of religious and social artifacts, she said, "it's really this wonderful collection that has always been accounted for, just never formally processed or archived or managed."

The tidy archives room with its glassed shelves of artifacts looks very different after just three weeks of work by the visiting archivist.

"It's amazing," she said. "I mean, I'm biased because I love this work. It's exciting work. It engages me. It excites me."

Majer said some of the artifacts are fully 200 years old, including a carved wooden cross from Lennox Island First Nation and a piece of the boat used by Bishop Angus MacEachern, who formed the diocese in 1829.

It's crazy, it's amazing, it's absolutely overwhelming that that still exists.— Archivist Debra Majer 

"It's crazy, it's amazing, it's absolutely overwhelming that that still exists," she said.

"Having this opportunity to put a professional program in place for others to manage, it has just been so rewarding."

Public display

Majer's work is just the beginning. The diocese will have a part-time archivist working on the collection from now until the big anniversary year in 2029. 

There are also plans for public exhibits that year, featuring some of the artifacts. 

"This is very much a beautiful story of the acts of people, and kindness, and the work of hard-working people, building churches, building community, sharing, supporting," Majer said.

Majer said it is important for archive collections to also reflect the darker periods of the Catholic church's history.

"It's a story of everything that went on. And nobody's history is glowing all the time," she said.

"There are dark periods like anything. Now, have I come across those? I haven't. But I'm sure once this collection is reviewed, I'm sure there's those stories that will come up.

"But that's like any institutional history. There are always those parts of a history." 

No residential schools were located on Prince Edward Island, but Mi'kmaq children from the Island were sometimes sent to schools on the mainland, and there were a handful of what were known as Indian day schools for several decades.

Father Chris Sherren, the diocesan chancellor in Charlottetown, said the archives project will also reflect lots of connections to the larger community.

"The Diocese of Charlottetown was involved in a lot of different institutions here: Charlottetown Hospital, St. Dunstan's University, which eventually became UPEI," Sherren said.

I think people interested in Catholic history in general, the history of Canada, the history of Prince Edward Island will find something here.​​​​​​— Father Chris Sherren

"We hope to do our own research internally. We hope to invite academic researchers from outside as well, who want to come in and do research on history of PEI and history of the diocese.

"It's a lot, 200 years, but we'll do our best to highlight the most important parts for sure," Sherren said.

"I think people interested in Catholic history in general, the history of Canada, the history of Prince Edward Island will find something here."