SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Nes­tled in the vil­lage of Mt Pleas­ant, To­ba­go, St Patrick’s An­gli­can Church stands as a bea­con of re­silience and faith. Con­se­crat­ed in 1843, it holds the dis­tinc­tion of be­ing the old­est church build­ing on the is­land. Built with fire bricks made from ship bal­last and car­ried by en­slaved Africans from Mt Irvine Bay, the church’s very foun­da­tion tells a sto­ry of sac­ri­fice and en­durance.

In charge of the church to­day are Rev Fr Hen­ry and Rev He­len Nathan, who lead a vi­brant and his­tor­i­cal­ly aware con­gre­ga­tion.

The church com­pound is more than a place of wor­ship—it hous­es a ceme­tery and St Patrick’s An­gli­can School, and it serves as a hub for ed­u­ca­tion, cul­ture, and com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment.

Stu­dents and re­searchers in fields such as ar­chi­tec­ture, his­to­ry, cul­tur­al stud­ies, and ar­chae­ol­o­gy—both lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al—reg­u­lar­ly tour the site. Recog­nised as a cul­tur­al her­itage and his­tor­i­cal site by the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly and the Na­tion­al Her­itage Trust, the church al­so trans­forms in­to an en­ter­tain­ment and recre­ation­al space for parish and pub­lic ac­tiv­i­ties.

Among those laid to rest in the ceme­tery is Jane Lovell (1820–1923), one of the longest-sur­viv­ing en­slaved Africans who trans­port­ed bricks to con­struct the church. Her grave lies be­side that of Alexan­der “Door Mouth” Moore (1840–1924), one of the church’s longest-serv­ing sex­tons, cre­at­ing poignant links to the past.

Un­der the stew­ard­ship of Fr Hen­ry, a Restora­tive Com­mit­tee has been tasked with pre­serv­ing the church’s struc­tur­al in­tegri­ty and en­sur­ing its rich lega­cy is passed down to fu­ture gen­er­a­tions. The church’s Goth­ic Re­vival-style ar­chi­tec­ture, typ­i­cal of 19th-cen­tu­ry Caribbean ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal de­sign, along with its his­tor­i­cal ar­ti­facts, are at the heart of this mis­sion.

Among the church’s trea­sures are:

A two-vol­ume leather-bound Doré Bible, with en­graved il­lus­tra­tions by Gus­tave Doré.

Relics from the horse-and-bug­gy era, dis­played at the church’s en­trance.

A bronze lectern dat­ed 1727, do­nat­ed by Sir Ge­of­frey Knox.

A cop­per-plat­ed sil­ver chal­ice still in use to­day, dat­ing to the 18th cen­tu­ry.

A Moth­er-of-Pearl bap­tismal shell fea­tur­ing a 200-plus-year-old carv­ing of Je­sus sym­bol­is­ing the Res­ur­rec­tion, dis­cov­ered in Buc­coo by Ce­cil An­tho­ny, the man be­hind To­ba­go’s famed glass-bot­tom boats.

The church’s pres­tige has at­tract­ed in­ter­na­tion­al at­ten­tion. Among the no­table in­di­vid­u­als who have wor­shipped at St Patrick’s are Britain’s King Charles III (then Prince of Wales), Baroness Floel­la Ben­jamin, and for­mer US Sec­re­tary of State Madeleine Al­bright.

In sup­port of its restora­tion goals, the com­mit­tee un­der­takes rev­enue-gen­er­at­ing and fundrais­ing ac­tiv­i­ties, many of which are ed­u­ca­tion­al and her­itage-fo­cused.

One of its flag­ship events, the an­nu­al An­ces­tral Walk, re­turns on Au­gust 9, from 6 am to 2 pm. This year’s theme—“Build­ing on Our An­ces­tors’ Sweat & Tears – A St Patrick’s Lega­cy”—ho­n­ours the en­slaved Africans who built the church and con­tributed to its en­dur­ing lega­cy. The 2.3-mile walk re­traces the path from Mt Irvine Beach to the church, sym­bol­is­ing a jour­ney of mem­o­ry, trib­ute, and cul­tur­al preser­va­tion.

Ad­di­tion­al high­lights of the day in­clude:

A dra­mat­ic re-en­act­ment of the trad­ing ves­sel’s ar­rival and the ex­change of sug­ar for bricks

Live Tam­brin and oth­er mu­si­cal per­for­mances

An aca­d­e­m­ic lec­ture

Nov­el­ty games and a her­itage booth

Lo­cal food and craft sales

Break­fast will be avail­able for $30, with pro­ceeds sup­port­ing the restora­tion fund.

The restora­tion project is bud­get­ed at over $338,000, with an ur­gent need to raise $150,000 this year to com­plete Phase Two of the works.

Sup­port the Lega­cy

Phone: (868) 639-8832

Bank: Re­pub­lic Bank

Ac­count Name: St Patrick’s An­gli­can Church

Ac­count Num­ber: 0208 0047 8801

Clear­ly state the pur­pose of the de­posit and email the re­ceipt to stpatrick­parish.to­ba­go@gmail.com.