Holy Cross Church is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Reserve, north-eastern

Manitoulin island Manitoulin Island ( ) is an island in Lake Huron, located within the borders of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, in the bioregion known as Laurentia (bioregion), Laurentia. With an area of , it is the Lake ...

. It was founded by the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

(Jesuits) in 1844 and was their first

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on p ...

since their suppression in 1767. The mission played a significant role in increasing literacy in Canada of the

Ojibwe language Ojibwe ( ), also known as Ojibwa ( ), Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous la ...

.Alan Corbiere,
Exploring Historical Literacy in Manitoulin Island Ojibwe
, Papers of the 34th Algonquian Conference, ed. H.C. Wolfart (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 2003), pp. 57-8, retrieved from

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

, 3 September 2018 The church building itself was constructed in 1852. It is situated to the north of Wiikwemkoong on Wikwemikong Way, next to the Giizhigaanang Community Centre.

History

Foundation

The first known European person to go to Manitoulin Island was a Jesuit priest, Fr. Joseph Poncet. He arrived in 1648. No one followed to sustain a European presence on the island. After the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, the

Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ) are an Indigenous North American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long prec ...

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

and

Potawatomi The Potawatomi (), also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, ...

tribes moved to the island. Further First Nation people also moved to the island after the

Treaty of Washington A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

in 1836. In 1838, a Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Jean-Baptiste Proulx, was asked to come to the island to serve the local Catholic population, marking the first Jesuit mission to Northern Ontario in the nineteenth century. In 1845, he left and the Jesuits continued in his place. They built a school, a residence, a sawmill and an agricultural training centre for the local people.A Synopsis of the History of Wikwemikong, Ontario
from Archives of

Algoma University Algoma University, commonly shortened to Algoma U, is a Canadian public university in the province of Ontario, with campuses in Brampton, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie, and Timmins. Algoma U offers bachelor's degrees, master's degre ...

, retrieved 3 September 2018 As the Jesuits who worked in the Wiikwemkoong had to learn the

and then teach the young people there how to write it, an exchange in skills and languages emerged. This exchange of language meant that the Nishnaabeg of Manitoulin Island wrote in the Ojibwe language not only in about religious matter but also in their personal and political correspondence, serving multiple uses to multiple audiences. Also, over the course of the 19th century most of the written Ojibwe texts were produced by non-Native people, usually missionaries and linguists, such as the Jesuits, so a burgeoning Nishnaabe literacy movement emerged.

Construction

In 1848, plans were made to build a permanent church structure. One of the Jesuits there, Fr.

Nicholas Point Nicholas Point; (10 April 1799 – 4 July 1868), was a French Catholic priest, artist, and member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). He is known primarily for the drawings and watercolors he created during his missionary work in the mid-19th ce ...

, was an architect and designed the church. The foundation stone of the church was laid on 31 July 1849. It was built using limestone bricks. The builders were local people. Construction finished nearly three years later and the church was opened on 25 July 1852. In 1899, the church steeple was built.Shelley J. Pearen, ''Exploring Manitoulin'', Third Edition, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1992, page 153.

Rebuilding

In 1954, both the church and the residence next to it were damaged by a fire. The church interior was burnt, and was rebuilt. The residence was more severely damaged. The building had to be abandoned. The interior was demolished, leaving only the exterior walls. In 1988,

TVOntario TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian Public broadcasting, publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates ...

's ''People Patterns'' documentary featured Holy Cross as part of its history of Manitoulin Island and the people there.

Mission ruins

Since 1994, the ruins of the residence next to the church have been used by the De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Group, the longest-running professional indigenous theatre company in North America. Since the company's creation, every summer, between July and August, the theatre group use the empty space enclosed by the external walls as a venue to show theatrical productions. The first one was ''The Manitoulin Incident'' written by Alanis King. During the

Good Friday Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

, the theatre group stage a production of the

Passion of Christ The Passion (from latin language, Latin , "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy ...

for the parish community in the Holy Cross Mission Church. In 2016, there ruins were used as a backdrop by

Crystal Shawanda Crystal Shawanda (born July 26, 1983) is a Canadian blues and country music artist. CMT documented her rise to fame in the six-part series ''Crystal: Living the Dream'', which was broadcast in February 2008. Signed to RCA Nashville in 2007, she r ...

in her music video for "Pray, Sister Pray", which was nominated at the 41st

American Indian Film Festival The American Indian Film Festival is an annual non-profit film festival in San Francisco, California, United States. It is the world's oldest venue dedicated solely to Native American/First Nations films and prepared the way for the 1979 formati ...

.Crystal Shawanda music video nominated for American Indian Film Institute Award Nov. 5
by Michael Erskine from ''The Manitoulin Expositor'', 26 October 2016, retrieved 3 September 2018

References

External links

Anishinabe Spiritual Centre site

De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Group site
{{Jesuits in Canada Buildings and structures in Manitoulin District Jesuit churches in Canada Roman Catholic churches in Ontario First Nations theatre Roman Catholic churches completed in 1852 1852 establishments in Canada 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Canada