Saint Brigid's Church (Ottawa) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Saint Brigid's Church |
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| Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts | |
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Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts, formerly St Brigid's Church
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| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| History | |
| Status | deconsecrated, used as arts centre |
| Dedication | Saint Brigid |
St Brigid's was once a Roman Catholic church in the Lower Town area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was built for the English-speaking Catholic people living there. In 2006, the church announced it would close. It was sold in 2007 and became the Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts. This new centre celebrates Irish-Canadian culture and history.
In 2022, the building was involved in a situation with a group called The United People of Canada.
Contents
The Church's Early Days
Before St Brigid's was built, many Irish families in Ottawa went to Notre-Dame Cathedral. This was the main Catholic church in the city. Over time, the number of French-speaking Catholics grew more than the Irish-speaking ones. This meant the Irish community had less say in how Notre-Dame was run.
Planning a New Church for Ottawa's Irish Community
In March 1888, people started talking about building a new church just for English-speaking Catholics in Lower Town. A group from Notre-Dame Cathedral met with the Archbishop of Ottawa, Joseph-Thomas Duhamel. They all agreed to create a new church parish. They chose a spot for the church, and by May 3, 1888, James R. Bowes was picked as the architect.
Building St Brigid's Church
The plans for St Brigid's showed a large building at the corner of St Patrick and Cumberland Streets. It was built in the Romanesque Revival style, which people at the time often called Norman. The front of the church has three big, round-arched doorways. It also has two towers, but they are not the same height or design.
The taller tower, on the east side, has a special cap shaped like a bishop's mitre. This showed that the church and its Irish members strongly followed the Ultramontanist ideas of the Catholic Church. Building work on St Brigid's began in 1889. The church was finished and officially blessed on August 3, 1890.
Why St Brigid's Church Closed
In May 2006, Archbishop Marcel Gervais announced that St Brigid's Church would close. The number of people attending church had become very small. Also, the building needed hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs, which the church felt it could not afford.
The people who went to St Brigid's were very upset about this. They even went to court to try and keep the church open, but they were not successful. When the church was sold, one rule was that the building could never be used as a Catholic church again by anyone who bought it.
New Life for the Building
In 2007, St Brigid's Catholic Church was put up for sale. Four investors bought the building that had been used as a church for $450,000.
Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts
A company owned by Patrick McDonald bought the church. McDonald was born in Portarlington, Ireland, and moved to Canada in 1989. He used the building to create the Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts. This centre is a place for Irish-Canadian culture and events. It hosts art shows, plays, and music concerts. On January 6, 2016, McDonald also opened a pub called The Brigid's Well in the church's basement. In 2010, the building was even used to film parts of the movie Sacrifice, which came out in 2011. Patrick McDonald himself played a small role in the film as Father Patrick.
The Building in 2022
In 2022, McDonald agreed to sell the church to a group called The United People of Canada (TUPOC). TUPOC moved into the building in July 2022 and began calling it an "embassy." However, the deal to buy the church later fell apart. McDonald said that TUPOC broke rules about the building's history, bothered other people renting space there, and did not pay the money they owed.
TUPOC owed $10,000 in rent and did not show proof of insurance. Because of this, they were given an eviction notice on August 17, 2022. The locks were changed on August 18. On September 23, 2022, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice decided that TUPOC had broken their agreement to buy the church. This was because they did not make payments, even after being given more time. The court allowed the eviction and ordered TUPOC to pay $53,000 to the owners. TUPOC tried to appeal this decision but lost in 2023.
See also
