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Abstract
In contrast to the well-documented work of the Canadian Mission, or CM, which arrived in Trinidad from Nova Scotia in 1868 expressly to Christianize the migrants from India and their offspring, Catholic missionary activity among Trinidad's Indian population is far less known. This article, drawing extensively on archival resources in French, explores the efforts of the Catholic missionaries to evangelize the Indians. The article concludes that although it was eventually overtaken by the more focused Canadian Mission, Catholic missionary work was much more active and widespread than is generally assumed. It also involved female missionaries, a feature which previous studies have largely overlooked.
Introduction
Drawing on archival documents in French located in Trinidad, France and Italy, the present study has produced a much clearer picture of the Catholic mission among the Indians of Trinidad. The documents include letters from Dominican priests in southern Trinidad to Archbishop Gonin in Port of Spain; correspondence between the Church in Trinidad and L'Oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi (Institution of the Propagation of the Faith) a French organization that funded overseas missions and made annual subventions to the Church in Trinidad over the years; a report on the Archdiocese of Port of Spain submitted to the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith in Rome by the archbishop in 1874; an extensive 1896 report on the Dominican mission in Trinidad following the handover of the diocese to the Irish Dominicans; annual circulars from the Dominican sisters; contemporary biographical sketches of several of the sisters; and other memoirs written by the nuns. These primary documents have not been examined in any study in English on the Catholic Church in Trinidad.1
In contrast to the well-documented work of the Canadian missionaries, or CM, the branch of the Presbyterian Church that arrived in Trinidad from Nova Scotia in 1868 expressly to Christianize the migrants from India and their offspring, Catholic missionary activity among the Indian population has received minimal attention from scholars. Approximately 143,000 Indians, mainly from the north, came to Trinidad to work as indentured labourers on sugar and cocoa estates between 1845 and 1917. The overwhelming majority were Hindus, a minority were Muslims, and a tiny fraction came as Christians. The thousands of socalled heathen...