For as long as I can remember, the St. Anne’s Mission has been in Chapel Island and in Merigomish.
The “mission” is an annual summer gathering of Mi’kmaq to honour St. Anne, the patron saint of Mi’kmaq people. St. Anne’s Day is July 26, but the week surrounding that date is set aside for the mission.
For centuries, the regional chiefs of the Mi’kmaq Grand Council, the traditional government of the Mi’kmaq, travelled to Chapel Island, or Mniku, every summer to meet. But Mi’kmaq from all around would also join the Grand Council for the gathering.
In 1610, Grand Chief Membertou was baptized into Catholicism during a ceremony in Annapolis Royal. It is said that all Mi’kmaq became Roman Catholic after that.
More than 100 years later, the traditional summer gathering at Chapel Island turned into a Catholic mission, in 1742, when French missionary Father Pierre Maillard built a church on Mniku Island. He erected a statue of St. Anne, the grandmother of Jesus, in the church. St. Anne then became the patron saint of the Mi’kmaq people.
More than 2,000 Mi’kmaq congregate in Chapel Island every year during the last week in July to take part in the mission. Some travel from as far away as Quebec and Maine to renew family ties and friendships. It is said to be the longest continuous mission in Canada.
I don’t remember the first time I went to the mission in Chapel Island. But there are snapshots in the family photo album to prove I was there. According to my folks, I was a really spoiled four-year-old who pouted and cried enough to persuade them to take me along to the week-long event.
Every summer since then, I looked forward to St. Anne’s celebration. It wasn’t so much the religious part of it, but it was a chance for friends and family to get together during the summer.
My folks would pack up the family car with camping gear and head out to Cape Breton to take part in mission week. We would wait on the wharf with the other families for a boat taxi to take us to the island.
I recall meeting relatives I had never seen before, playing with other children, swimming and exploring the trails on the island. In the evening, we would find a campfire where we would gather and listen to stories until the wee hours.
And it was the same when my family joined the mission in Merigomish, near New Glasgow. We stayed at a cabin, which my mother’s aunt and uncle owned, on the island.
Then on the Sunday of that week, we would all dress in our formal attire and go to mass. As part of the mass, community members would carry a statue of St. Anne to a secluded part of the island. The congregation would follow in procession down a wide path to the end of the trail, where people would pay homage to St. Anne before the statue was taken back to the church. I always found that week, on either island, so peaceful and fun.
But I must admit I haven’t taken part in the annual mission since I was a teenager. Mission week doesn’t coincide with non-aboriginal holidays, so it is difficult for me to get the time off work to take part. So last year, when Parks Canada announced that it was going to designate the Chapel Island mission as a national historic site, I jumped at the chance to cover the event.
We got there a few hours early that day in order to collect footage of the island and the church. As I walked into the church, childhood memories came rushing through my head.
I recalled running up and down the aisles of the church with other children and looking at the statues. While my spouse took pictures of the historic church, I noticed little children peeking through the door to see what we were doing. A few minutes after that, five or six of them were running around the church.
Outside, I saw familiar scenes of children running around, teenagers hanging out, and adults going from camp to camp visiting friends and relatives. And in the background, there were people lined up at the wharf waiting for boat taxis to take them back and forth from the island. It was a jovial time, and it was then that I realized I’ve been away from the annual mission far too long.
It was very special for me to see the island being recognized as a national historic site because the St. Anne’s Mission is a part of who I am as a Mi’kmaq.
Maureen Googoo is a Mi’kmaq journalist based in Halifax.
