This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Catholic Parish of Anse Royale.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Catholic Parish. of Anse Royale

TONY MATHIOT recounts its history:
When Father Ignace Galfione (1815-1881) arrived in Seychelles in October 1864 to assume the post of Vice-Apostolic prefect of the Catholic Church, the archipelago was a cauldron of religious fervor with the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church vying for the souls of the inhabitants who were mostly descendants of slaves.
Galfione came in the churning wake of his predecessor, FatherJeremie de Paglieta (1820-1871) who had built the First Chapel at Anse Royale in the mid-1850s. The small structure of wood with thatched roof was destroyed during the great cyclone of 1862, and was replaced by a similar structure. In its effort to reach and evangelise the maximum number of inhabitants, the catholic mission was obliged to create little outposts in all the districts on Mahe and on Praslin and La Digue. And Anse Royale, being the place where the first settlement of Jardin du Roi was created in 1772 had a population that needed a place to worship. In 1866, Father Galfione declared Anse Royale a parish, the sixth to be named after Victoria (1853) Anse Aux Pins (1853) Baie Ste Anne Praslin (1853) and La Digue (1853).
The first Parish Priest of Anse Royale was Father Valentin de Reyvroz (1836-1883) who stayed from 1868 to 1875. Galfione presciently predicted the growth of the Parish by establishing a school there, the management of which he entrusted to a group of nuns of the St Joseph de Cluny convent who came to reside in the district. Such was his indefatigable spirit and his veneration for the husband of Jesus’ mother that in 1878 he created the Parish of St Joseph at Grand Anse Praslin where a small chapel of pandanus leaves offered spiritual sanctuary to the inhabitants, with FatherAnge Fauvre (1848-1924) as the parish priest.

During the last two decades of the 19th century, the parish of Anse Royale was devotedly served by capuchins Savoyard priests, among whom the memory of Father Philibert Meynet (1841-1903) who is buried in the Parish cemetery marked, perhaps may we say, the more turbulent chapters of the parish history. It was at a time when the Anglican Church was equally diligently making progress in their evangelism and building up their congregation. In 1845, long before the arrival of the First Catholic Missionary, FatherLeon des Avanchers (1825-1879), a school was opened. It doubled as a chapel. In 1887, the Anglican parish was created and in 1889, the St Saviour’s Church was built on the same stretch of coastline about 800 feet north of the catholic chapel which by then had been rebuilt with stone, whereas, it would be over forty years later that the catholic parishioners received the Eucharist in a church. In 1882, a belfry was added to the Chapel. It was blessed that same year on October 22 by Father Edmond Dardel (1825-1890).

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