16 April 2006
the Catholic presence
In weaving the multi-hued cloth that constitutes the Region of Waterloo, one needs always go back to the beginning of the European presence in this watershed. In 1800, the first non-aboriginal settlers began arriving in the Grand River watershed following Six Nation's Chief Joseph Brant's decision to sell off the northern reaches. First to arrive were Joseph Schoerg and his father-in-law Samuel Betzner to settle the Historic Ridge; by 1807, Joseph Schneider, Abraham Weber, and Bishop Benjamin Eby had arrived to take up lots where now downtown Kitchener is located. After the initial twenty years' of settlement by Pennsylvania Mennonites, other German Catholic pioneers arrived directly from Alsace, Baden, and Wuertemberg. By 1827, this group of pioneers settled in St. Agatha and New Germany (now Maryhill).
When Father Eugene Funcken arrived from Rome in St. Agatha in 1857, he determined the necessity for an institution of learning to train laymen in the faith and to for the priesthood in the language spoken by the various settlers. He was soon joined in this work by a Mr. Fennessey who had come to learn German from Father Eugene; in return he taught Father Eugene English. As well, he had started teaching a group of boys in the village. Seven years later, Father Eugene's brother, Father Louis Funcken came out from Rome to St. Agatha to be the founder of St. Jerome's College for the Fathers of the Resurrection in Canada. Initially he conducted classes in German in a vacant house in St. Agatha but eventually transferred the college to Berlin, the county town conveniently situated on the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1866, St. Jerome's opened in Berlin with 40 resident students from Ontario and some from the United States. By 1905, the college had grown to 150 boarding students and 30 days students and necessitated the building of the administration building fronting on Duke Street as well as a spacious gymnasium on College Street.
Photos Sandamara Images L to R clockwise: Maryhill Roadside shrine erected by new immigrant to give thanks for his safe passage across the Atlantic; St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church; statue of Father Louis Funcken with Berlin industrialist Reinhold Lang -- sculpted by Italian sculptor Faphael Zaccagini, who also sculpted the Queen Victoria statue with lion in Victoria Park; St. Agatha RC church(1899); St. Agatha Shrine of the Sorrowful Mother and cemetery; Maryhill RC Church(1877-78).
Note: the St. Agatha Church was considered the "Mother Church" for Roman Catholics living in Waterloo Township.Both the Maryhill and St. Agatha church steeples are topped with beautiful wrought iron crosses manufactured locally. Other examples of local wrought iron work are to be found in the cemeteries in St. Agatha, Maryhill, and St. Clements. There are a total of three roadside shrines located near Maryhill for the adventurous to discover!
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