WEST WARWICK — When walking down Washington Street in Arctic Village, there are signs of what once was. Small shops and cafés line the sides of the street. The smokestacks of an old mill stand as a monument to how this section of one of Rhode Island’s smallest towns was once one of the industrial hubs of Kent County, attracting settlers from throughout the state, and many immigrants who came looking for new opportunities. This attests to the cultural scene and ethnic diversity that once defined daily life in West Warwick.
At the center of it all is a large building constructed in the Gothic Revival-style, prevalent in Catholic architecture in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Above one door is written, in a highly calligraphic style, the French phrase Maison de Dieu, “the House of God.” Such is the facade of Saints John and James Parish, one of the largest parishes in West Warwick.
Established in 1874, this year marks the 150th anniversary of the parish’s founding. Once considered one of the social and cultural centers of West Warwick, many hope that it will be the center of a cultural revival that some see as already on the horizon.
“I think any time that we want to rebuild something, we have to get back down to the basics. The foundation of our Church will always be faith. And now that the foundation is secured … we get to go back out on mission,” said Father Nicholas Fleming, the pastor of Saints John and James and St. Mary’s Mission. “Part of our job now is to figure out exactly what we want our mission to be going forward.”
The history of Saints John and James Parish is, in many ways, closely connected to broader trends in the history of the Diocese of Providence. Prior to the establishment of the first permanent Catholic communities in Rhode Island, a handful of relatively small ones periodically arose throughout the state. Among them were those of French origin. The first Catholic Mass on Rhode Island soil was celebrated by French soldiers stationed in Rhode Island during the American Revolution.
Though the first permanent Catholic communities in Rhode Island were established by Irish immigrants settling in Rhode Island to work on the construction of the Blackstone Canal in the 1820s, Catholic immigrants from Quebec settled in Rhode Island shortly thereafter. Saints John and James Parish came into existence due to a spike in the French-Canadian Catholic population starting in the mid-19th century. With the increasing establishment of mills along the East Coast during the Industrial Revolution, many business owners began to look for cheap labor. Between the 1860s and 1910s, over 31,000 French Canadian immigrants settled in Rhode Island, with the majority settling in the Blackstone and Pawtuxet Valleys.
At first, the French-Canadian Catholics of West Warwick worshiped at St. Mary Parish, the church for the English-speaking Irish parish.. As the French-speaking population within this parish began to grow, Father James Gibson, the pastor of St. Mary, sent an appeal to Bishop Francis McFarland, then bishop of the Diocese of Hartford (under whose jurisdiction the Catholics of Rhode Island at that time fell), who assigned a priest fluent in French to minister to the needs of the French parishioners.
This community grew to such an extent that in 1872, they appealed for the creation of their own parish, something that was quickly approved by Bishop Thomas F. Hendricken, the first bishop of the Diocese of Providence. Construction of Saints John and James began in January of 1873, and was completed in June of 1874.
Saints John and James attracted so many Catholic settlers that between 1870 and 1880, Arctic Village grew from a sparsely populated and underdeveloped area to a sprawling center of commerce. Yet, its influence within the local community was the result not merely of its sheer size, but because of the proactive approach taken by its early leaders. Father Joseph Bourgeois, for example, who was appointed pastor of Saints John and James in 1899, was known for creating many youth-based organizations within the parish, and for being particularly sensitive to the spiritual needs of the children. He helped raise funds for many renovations of the parish and promoted education among his congregants. He was also deeply involved in the broader life of the community: he promoted a concern for current social and political issues and was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Odeon Theater in West Warwick.
As the congregation grew, so did the need for a larger building. Brian Guiot, a parishioner of Saints John and James and a local historian currently writing a book on the history of the church, notes that construction of the current parish building began in 1938, and concluded in 1939, with the first Mass celebrated in the new parish at the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, though minor construction work continued until the early 1950s.
The leadership at Saints John and James hopes to continue its legacy as the heart of a vibrant parish life.
“I find West Warwick to be charmingly quaint, especially Arctic. It’s very pedestrian in its movement, and it’s very charming in its culture,” Father Fleming noted.
“When you hear people speak about Arctic in its heyday, it was full of life, and there was a lot of industry and a lot of social life. … Arctic right now is on a growth spurt because we have a lot of buildings that have been in disrepair that are now growing, coming to life.”
Father Fleming remarked on how the Church is attempting to centralize her place in the community, “to provide not only the social aspect, but also to stand firm as a pillar and foundation, a monument of faith within the community,” he continued, going on to say that the basis of the Church’s role is its commitment to being a beacon of love of God and neighbor.
“The liturgy forms our heart in charity, so anything that we do for God will be because we love God.”
