Today, Sunday March 17 is St Patrick's Day, the patron saint of Ireland to whom St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in the Catholic Parish of Newtown was dedicated nearly 150 years ago. Father Hugh Joyeau, the parish priest, and his parishioners are hosting a 'sumptuous' brunch for the very small donation of $25.00 from 7.30 to 11 a.m. Masses are as usual 6.30 and 8.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m.
The parish started with a small wooden church built on the spot which is today occupied by the front garden. "It must have been just a chapel" says Father Hugh, who is proud that the present church built in 1856 "happens to be one of the oldest buildings in this part of the city." And is even more proud that in the beginning, St Patrick's parish served not only the people of Newtown, but also Woodbrook, St Clair and Lower Maraval, before there was a St Theresa's or Assumption Church.
And although Newtown has become very commercialised and most of the residents have moved out, St Patrick's, says Father Joyeau "remains a family parish where people have been baptised, confirmed and married, and want their funerals right here also."
The solid Victorian-style building was built of stone transported by parishioners to the site. The outer facings are of red brick imported from England. Of the permanent fixtures only the original roof has been replaced by the beautiful, open Gothic style roof which we see today. And despite the fact that Father Joyeau is already trying to organise a committee to plan the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of St Patrick's in four years time, he is also right now looking after the replacement of the gutterings which "are as old as the church and were not changed with the roof. The result is that water has perforated the walls and the dampness is causing the paint to peel off. Besides which when the existing modified bitumen membrane and guttering were removed for replacement by prepainted aluminium guttering, the boards at the back were found to have been totally destroyed by termites."
"We are planning to renovate the entire church in the next four years. leading to the 150th anniversary" says the priest who claims to be the happiest man on the face of the earth. "I live up to my name, Joyeau, which means joyful, happy, I love celebrating life, the day life refuses to challenge us that's the day life is not worth living."
This busy man who says Mass daily in various parishes and "so many funerals" has already called in Rentokil to assess the damage done to the inside of the church "and we have found a great portion of the ceiling needs to be restored. We have to attend to the lighting system and see how safe it is because when one starts other things crop up. We are preparing St Patrick's for the next fifty years."
Father Hugh Joyeau was not born in Tobago, as so many people seem to believe and was quick to say "I was born in Curepe and grew up at the corner of Charlotte and Market Streets in St Joseph. My father was from Blanchisseuse and my mother from Scarborough, Tobago. I was the third of eight children - four boys and four girls." Educated at St Joseph's Boys' Roman Catholic School and St Joseph's Boys' College, a private secondary school opened by Father Devenish, he did his religious training at the Regional Seminary of St John's Vianney & the Ugandan Martyrs, was ordained on November 8, 1987 by the late Archbishop Anthony Pantin, whom the elders of the parish still consider their finest achievement, that of producing the first and only Trinidad and Tobago born Archbishop, also the youngest at the time of his consecration. The Pantin family lived on Woodford Street, Newtown, and worshipped at St Patrick's.
Father Joyeau then served in the Laventille/Morvant pastoral area and at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in New Grant, before going to Andover Newton Theological School in Boston to pursue a Certificate in Clinical Pastoral Education and to the Centre for Religious Development in Cambridge, Mass, for a course in Spiritual Direction.
Coming back home Father Joyeau, who will be 53 on July 10, went to his mother's homeland at the St Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Scarborough, Tobago, followed by some years at the St Anthony's R.C. Church in Point Fortin. He has been at St Patricks for the past two and a half years, which had had no resident priest for many years before his arrival there. The parish was being ably managed by Sister Mary Teresa Eddy of the Corpus Christi Convent of Carmelite Sisters with assistance in the celebration of Mass from Father Gervais Girod and Monsignor Jude Okolo of Nigeria.
And says the Joyful Father Joyeau "I have been very happy and comfortable in this parish. The one thing I would like is to see some pictures of what the old rectory looked like." And I am positive that there are many parishioners who can fulfil his wish.