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The Catholic Church in Jersey is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
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| Catholicismportal |
The Catholic Church in Jersey is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
Sometime between 535 and 545 Helier, who was to become Jersey's patron saint, went to the island and brought the gospel. [1]
The island of Jersey remained part of the Duchy of Normandy until 1204 when King Philip II Augustus of France conquered the duchy from King John of England. The islands remained in the personal possession of the king and were described as being a Peculiar of the Crown. However, throughout the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church did not concern itself with overly political changes and the island continued to be part of the Norman diocese of Coutances. It was reluctant to come under the wing of the English church because it had many ties with Normandy: its language, which was much like that of the Normans; trade links; Norman customary law; and kinship to families in Normandy.
The island embraced the French Calvinist form of Protestantism during the Reformation and the orders were received to remove all signs of Catholicism in 1547 with the Act of Dissolution of the Colleges and Chantries, which had been applied to Jersey in the Act of Uniformity 1549: [2] numerous wayside crosses were destroyed along with religious statues and other symbols. In 1550 a Royal Commission visited the island to sell church property for the benefit of the crown; in 1551 Sir Hugh Paulet, a member of this Royal Commission, was made Governor of the island and so he returned with a Royal Commission addressed to himself to continue the task. [3] The island remained under the diocese of Coutances until 1569.
In the 1790s, during the French Revolution, French Catholics took refuge in Jersey, allowed to hold services but not to proselytize.
In the 1830s and 1840s the island's Catholic community knew growth with the influx of Irish labourers coming to work on major building projects such as the new harbour.
Towards the end of the 19th century Catholic teaching and nursing orders — the De La Salle brothers, Jesuits and Little Sisters of the Poor — settled in Jersey. In 1894, the Jesuits bought a property called Highlands, which later became Highlands College. In 1917, the De La Salle Brothers founded De La Salle College, Jersey.
During the German occupation of the Channel Islands, the Germans imported a priest from Normandy who was alleged to have sympathies with the Vichy regime. [4]
Today, Jersey is under the diocese of Portsmouth.
There are eight Catholic churches on the island. [5] However, there is a shortage of priests and workers and the Catholic Church there has therefore had to close two chapels [6] and sell some of its churches. [7] [8]
Minorities of the Catholic faith in Jersey are not negligible, as Mass in certain churches (such as Saint Thomas's, pictured right) is regularly held in Portuguese and Polish and only occasionally today in French. Indeed, 6% of Jersey's population is Portuguese (especially Madeiran, having come to the island to work in the hotel and catering industry) [9] and among the 6% of Europeans there is a large Irish community and a considerable Polish community. [10]
The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, consisting of Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm and some smaller islands. They are considered the remnants of the Duchy of Normandy and, although they are not part of the United Kingdom, the UK is responsible for the defence and international relations of the islands. The Crown dependencies are not members of the Commonwealth of Nations, nor have they ever been in the European Union. They have a total population of about 170,499, and the bailiwicks' capitals, Saint Helier and Saint Peter Port, have populations of 33,500 and 18,207, respectively.
The history of Guernsey stretches back to evidence of prehistoric habitation and settlement and encompasses the development of its modern society.
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the largest of the Channel Islands and is 14 miles (23 km) from the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy. The Bailiwick consists of the main island of Jersey and some surrounding uninhabited islands and rocks including Les Dirouilles, Les Écréhous, Les Minquiers, and Les Pierres de Lecq.
Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, an island group in the English Channel near France. Although not geographically part of the archipelago of the British Isles, politically and culturally the islands are generally accepted as such. The Channel Islands are the last remnants of the medieval Duchy of Normandy that held sway in both France and England. The islands remained loyal to the English crown after the return of Normandy to France in 1204 and have enjoyed self-government since.
Normandy is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey is one of three Crown Dependencies.
The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans.
Avranches is a commune in the Manche department, and the region of Normandy, northwestern France. It is a subprefecture of the department. The inhabitants are called Avranchinais.
Marculf was the abbot at Nantus in the Cotentin. He is regarded as a saint and is associated with the healing of scrofula.
Saint Helier was a 6th-century ascetic hermit. He is the patron saint of Jersey in the Channel Islands, and in particular of the town and parish of Saint Helier, the island's capital. He is also invoked as a healing saint for diseases of the skin and eyes.
Coutances is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France.
Coutances Cathedral is a Gothic Catholic cathedral constructed from 1210 to 1274 in the town of Coutances, Normandy, France. It incorporated the remains of an earlier Norman cathedral.
Walter de Coutances was a medieval Anglo-Norman bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of Rouen. He began his royal service in the government of Henry II, serving as a vice-chancellor. He also accumulated a number of ecclesiastical offices, becoming successively canon of Rouen Cathedral, treasurer of Rouen, and archdeacon of Oxford. King Henry sent him on a number of diplomatic missions and finally rewarded him with the bishopric of Lincoln in 1183. He did not remain there long, for he was translated to Rouen in late 1184.
Peter Canisius was a renowned Dutch Jesuit Catholic priest. He became known for his strong support for the Catholic faith during the Protestant Reformation in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland and the British Isles. The restoration of the Catholic Church in Germany after the Protestant Reformation is largely attributed to the work there of the Society of Jesus, which he led. He is venerated in the Catholic Church as a saint and as a Doctor of the Church.
St Saviour is a parish of Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is located directly east of St Helier. It has a population of 13,580. It has a land surface area of 3.6 square miles and has a very small coastline at Le Dicq.
St Clement is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey in the Channel Islands. Its parish hall is around 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) south-east of St Helier. The parish has a population of 9,221 and is the second most densely populated.
St John is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey and is around 7.3 kilometres (4.5 mi) north of St Helier on the north coast of the island. It has a surface area of 8.7 km2. St John's Village is also the name of the main village in the parish.
Despite its small size, the population of Jersey is made of people with a diverse range of religions and beliefs. Traditionally seen as a Christian island, Jersey's established church is the Church of England, and Anglicanism and Catholicism are practised on the island in roughly equal numbers. Together, these religions account for around half the population of Jersey. Other denominations of Christianity and other religions such as Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and Buddhism account for handfuls of people on the island. In recent years, irreligion has been an increasing force in Jersey, with two fifths of the population identifying as having no religion. This number rises to 52% for Jersey people under 35.
The Normans were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. The term is also used to denote emigrants from the duchy who conquered other territories such as England and Sicily. The Norse settlements in West Francia followed a series of raids on the French northern coast mainly from Denmark, although some also sailed from Norway and Sweden. Said settlements were finally legitimized when Rollo, a Scandinavian viking leader, agreed to swear fealty to King Charles III of West Francia following the siege of Chartres in 911 AD. The intermingling in Normandy produced an ethnic and cultural "Norman" identity in the first half of the 10th century, an identity which continued to evolve over the centuries.
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