FIRST CATHOLIC ORDINATION
In the summer of 1816, Bishop Thomas Scallen arrived in St John’s. He was to be the third Bishop of Newfoundland, succeeding Bishop Lambert. Accompanying Bishop Scallen was a 38 year old Deacon, Nicholas Devereux, whom he said was “good, moral and studious”.
Nicholas Devereux was born in County Wexford in 1778. Bishop Scallen and Nicholas Devereux hold a remarkable, but possibly little known, place in our Catholic History. The year of his arrival, 1816, Bishop Scallen ordained Nicholas Devereux in the Old Chapel on Henry Street. Thus, Bishop Scallen performed the first ordination of a Catholic priest in Newfoundland and Nicholas Devereux became the first Catholic priest ordained in Newfoundland.
The Old Catholic Chapel, Henry Street |
The newly ordained priest’s first appointment was as curate to Rev Andrew Cleary in Sacred Heart Parish, Placentia. After three years, Fr Devereux was made curate at Immaculate Conception Parish, Harbour Grace. He ministered there for eleven years. In 1830, Fr Devereux was appointed the first Parish priest at Burin where he remained for two years.
In 1832, Fr Nicholas Devereux was on the move again. This time he was made parish priest of the district of Bonavista Bay where he was to take up residence at King’s Cove. This would be his last appointment.
After a long, painful illness, Fr Nicholas Devereux died at his residence in King’s Cove on 25 April 1845. He was 67 years old. Fr Devereux, the first Catholic priest ordained in Newfoundland, was laid to rest in the Parish Cemetery in King’s Cove. (The very same King's Cove where one will find Pat Murphy's Meadow which was immortalised by J M Devine in that well loved Newfoundland song.)