Minor Basilica Renovations
St. Omer to design stained-glass windows

Interior of Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

The Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Castries, is about to undergo further renovations in preparation for the launching of Jubilee 2006. It is at the Minor Basilica on December 8th, 2005, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, that His Grace Archbishop Kelvin Felix will officially declare open the Golden Jubilee Year of the archdiocese, during a solemn Pontifical Mass.

In preparation, extensive repairs are taking place. The nagging roof leaks and falling ceiling boards are being addressed. To date the broken belfry has been completely restored and the electronic clock-bell works.

Giovianni St. Omer, Dunstan St. Omer and Fr. Michel Francis examine damaged mural

On the 9th June, 2005, renovations moved to another phase when the archdiocese of Castries signed a contract with Dunstan St. Omer, the renowned church muralist, to refurbish the existing murals in the Minor Basilica and to produce fourteen (14) stained-glass windows to replace the present plain-glass ones. The project is to be completed by December 2005 at a cost of EC$213,000.00. The project team includes Dunstan St. Omer (design coordinator), Luigi St. Omer (fine art lead), Julio St. Omer (fine art second lead) and Giovanni St. Omer (project director). Representing the Catholic Church in the negotiations and discussions were Archbishop Kelvin Felix, Fr. Michel Francis (administrator of the Minor Basilica) and Msgr. Patrick Anthony (former administrator).

Out of the discussions both parties agreed that Dunstan St.Omer would design the stained-glass windows to depict fourteen moments in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The administrator of the Minor Basilica would like to appeal to the public for their understanding and cooperation during the six months period of the project. He anticipates moments of inconvenience, as the project will involve dismantling, refurbishing and treating of the existing windows, then reframing and installing of the completed window. The restoration of the existing murals which is projected to take about two months, would require the use of scaffolding , another inconvenience.

L-R: Archbishop Kelvin Felix, Fr. Michel Francis, Dunstan St. Omer, and Giovanni St. Omer discussing the project

Meanwhile, as the Minor Basilica is a national monument/landmark, Catholics here and abroad, the public in general, as well as corporate citizens, are being invited to participate in this stained-glass window project through sponsorship. Sponsorship cost per window is EC$15,000.00. Interested persons or institutions can contact the Minor Basilica at Tel:(758)452-2271/72, Fax (758)452-6692, or e-mail: mbasilica@candw.lc.

Six For Permanent Diaconate
Sunday 26th July 2005

Errol Frederick	Andrew Edward	Arnold Clouden
Jeffrey Gabriel	Louvanus Inglis	Jeremie Joseph

On Sunday 26th July, six St. Lucians will be ordained permanent deacons by His Grace Archbishop Kelvin Felix at the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Castries. The ordination ceremony is scheduled to begin at 4.00 p.m. To be ordained are : Jeremy Joseph and Gabriel Jeffrey (Parish of St. Joseph the Worker, Gros-Islet), Andrew Edward and Arnold Clouden (Cathedral Parish), Errol Frederick ( Parish of Our Lady of Fatima, La Clery) and Louvanus Inglis (Parish of Our Lady of the Assumption, Vieux-Fort). The candidates have been in formation for the last four years under the guidance of the Pastoral Centre staff, but are expected to participate in continuing education programmes after ordination. They will begin a week of pre-ordination retreat at the Pope John Paul II Minor Seminary on Sunday 19th June. The retreat will be preached by Fr. Richard Paynter of St. Vincent. The Archdiocese invites everyone to pray for the candidates and their families, and to come in large numbers for the ordination ceremony.

Son of The Soil Passes On
Hon. Creswick Winville King
July 23rd 1917 - May 15th 2005

Hon. Winville “Winnie” King a devout Catholic an outstanding citizen died of a heart attack on 15th May 2005. One of his last public appearances was at the memorial service for the late Pope John Paul II, during which he proclaimed the First Reading.

Hon. Winnie King proclaiming the word at the Memorial Mass for Pope John Paul II

Mr. Creswick Winville King, SLC, KCSG, CBE, OBE, MBE was born in Soufriere on July 23, 1917, the son of Josephine King neé Duplessis of Marc, Bexon and Samuel Ethan King of Barbados.

He attended the Wesleyan School, now known as the Methodist Infant School and St. Mary’s College. As a school boy, he was an avid cricketer, footballer and athlete. He participated in the first Wade Shield Junior Tournament as captain 6 f the Junior St. Mary’s College Team and continued to win throughout the junior Football League. He also represented St. Lucia in the Windward Islands Inter School Tournament. On leaving school, along with Eric Osboume and Paddy Hepburn, he formed a formidable club called The Lucastrians which became one of the leading clubs in St. Lucia. Mr. King went on to become a cricket umpire and eventually a cricket commentator and commentator trainer both here and in the region. At St. Mary’s, he joined the Scout movement and the Cadet Corps. He would later serve as Island Commissioner for fourteen years.

He honed his skills as an actor from early performances at Sunday school concerts, moving on to performing in productions of Shakespeare’s plays at St. Mary’s College Speech Nights, and later as a member and avid performer with the St. Lucia Arts Guild and the Creative and Performing Arts Society.

His employment record is exemplary. He joined the Civil Service in 1935 as a copyist and then moved on up to a Clerkship position. From there to a senior position as District Officer with a responsibility for administration of all parishes and out districts and for the introduction of local government to town and village councils. In 1951, he became Supervisor of Elections and was responsible for introducing Adult Suffrage “to all nooks and crannies of St. Lucia, teaching what it meant to be able to vote and how to vote.” During his employment in the Service, he served as advisor to many civil servants and Ministers of Government. Indeed, it was he who recommended the Peace Corps to the authorities, ushering in the first group of Peace Corps to the island in 1963. He served as Clerk to the Colonial Government Executive Council, in which position he organized the formalities, and the celebration of Associated Statehood in 1966. He has also served as Acting Governor General. Mr. King retired from the Public Service in 1962 and joined the firm, of Peter and Company until his final retirement in 1992.

It is perhaps as a broadcaster that many of us came to know Mr. King. His radio voice gained popularity during his cricket commentary days and this encouraged his participation in drama, as an outside broadcaster for Carnival and other national events, as a newscaster on WIBS (Windward Islands Broadcasting Service), and as Master of Ceremonies at many an event. He has produced several radio programmes, among them, the popular “Peeps Into St. Lucia’s Past” and “The Battle of the Saints, 9 - 12th April, 1782”. He has authored and edited many publications, including “A Tribute to Sir Arthur Lewis”, Pigeon Island and Admiral Rodney.” “The. Pilgrim Pope A Man of Suffering, Pope John Paul II”, A History’ Peter and Company Ltd” and a “History of Minvielle & Chastanet Ltd.

Winville King received several awards including the Papal Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory (KCSG) and in 2003 the St. Lucia Cross (SLC). The Catholic Chronicle salutes this son of the soil and servant of the Church.

Editorial
St. Omer’s Finest Hour

Once again, Dunstan St. Omer and the Roman Catholic Church in St. Lucia have teamed up to produce another defining moment in the history of religious art in St. Lucia and the Caribbean. St. Omer, the premier Catholic muralist in the region, has agreed to design fourteen stained-glass windows to replace the unadorned ones in the Minor Basilica. The project has been commissioned by the archdiocese in keeping with the ancient Catholic tradition of the Church as leading patron of the arts. This is one of the many initiatives planned to mark the golden jubilee of the diocese of Castries.

The partnership between St. Omer and the Catholic Church goes back to as early as 1950 when he painted a small mural of Our Lady of Fatima for the chapel at La Clery. This was to commemorate Fr. Moore’s visit to St. Lucia with the Pilgrim Virgin. His next assignment was the mural of the church of St. Joseph the Worker in Gros-Islet which he completed in 1954. When Bishop Charles Gachet FMI was appointed first bishop of Castries, he had St. Omer to adorn his small chapel at Marchand. St. Omer produced a mural of the Annunciation.

With the coming of the Second Vatican Council, St. Omer found renewed enthusiasm for his art and support for his talent. Bishop Gachet returned from the Council with a clear sense of the thrust towards indigenization of the local Church and the challenge of inculturation of the faith into the culture of the people of Saint Lucia. St. Omer was invited to decorate the many new churches which were being constructed as part of Bishop Gachet’s massive building programme. The murals flowed : The Holy Family mural (Church of the Holy Family, Jacmel/Roseau), The La Rose & La Marguerite mural (Church of St. Rose of Lima, Monchy), The Last Supper mural (Church of the Holy Redeemer, Desruisseaux), the mural of Christ Enthroned/The Black Christ (Church of St. Phillip and James, Fonds St. Jacques) and the Cathedral murals.

His relationship with the Catholic Church extended regionally. Soon he was painting murals at the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and Uganda Martyrs, at Mount St. Benedict in Trinidad. His most ambitious undertaking was the triptych explosion in prismism for the space-aged Church of St. Francois in Martinique. With the present project at the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, St. Omer’s relationship with the Church comes to a climax. Perhaps the murals he painted there in preparation for the Holy Father’s visit to Saint Lucia in 1986 were just a prelude to this work which he has now undertaken.

As an artist, unrivalled in his love for Mary and unmatched in its expression, the present project offers him a chance to be generous in adulation. At the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, St. Omer wants to celebrate the role of Mary. Church authorities agree. His fourteen stained-glass windows will depict fourteen moments in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As for those ten open windows in the choir loft which bathe the church with light each day, they seem pre-ordained to radiate the splendour of the St.Omer Madonnas : the red, the blue, the purple, the yellow, the green Madonnas. Already in the mind’s eyes, one can witness the kaleidoscope of praise.

Like his friend Derek Walcott, who now feels “piercings of acute mortality” and calls his latest book The Prodigal (New York, 2004) “what will be your last book” (p.99), perhaps this Jubilee project may be St.Omer’s last major enterprise for the Church. ‘Gregorias, Apilo,’ as Walcott named him, still laughs with a roar and argues with a passion, but the gait is stooped and his movements measured. Twilight beckons. This is why there is no better moment than now and no more fitting place than at the ‘Mother Church’ of the archdiocese, for the master to stamp his final legacy. His native church murals, indigenous madonnas and trademark prismism all blossomed from his God-given genius. For St. Omer, it was always “ad gloriam dei fecit.” What an opportunity now to consecrate all to God in one final act of homage, in a place of perpetual worship! Surely, this is his finest hour!

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