St. Anthony of Padua Parish
Physical address: 4118 County Road 4, Centreville, Ontario
Mailing address: P.O. Box 239, Tamworth, ON K0K 3G0
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish
Physical address: 6046 County Road 41, Erinsville, Ontario
Mailing address: P.O. Box 239, Tamworth, ON K0K 3G0
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish
Physical address: 669 Church Road, Enterprise, Ontario
Mailing address: P.O. Box 239, Tamworth, ON K0K 3G0
St. Anthony of Padua
Located south of Centreville, Ontario, St. Anthony of Padua Parish was established in 1838, three years after a mission was started in that community. Construction on the church was completed in 1844. On September 9, 2001, the beautiful grotto to the Blessed Virgin to the left of the Church entrance was finished. And in 2006 the Church was renovated in a beautiful expression of the faith of our community.
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The history of the church of the Annunciation begins with the Irish famine of 1847-48. Many Irish immigrated to Canada, and an Irish community settled in the northern parts of the Camden, Hinchinbrooke, Portland and Sheffield.
The closest church serving the Irish community in Enterprise and Chippewa was St. Anthony’s in Centreville. Many parishioners would walk to Mass there, or travel in wagons. Every three weeks, the priest would travel in on horseback and celebrate Mass at Matthew Carroll’s house.
With a growing congregation, under the leadership of Fr. John Twomey, the community gathered together to build a parish in Chippewa, dedicated to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. The original church ended up being consecrated to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin and built around this time.
Very quickly, the wooden church became too small to support the needs of the community and the current Gothic stone Church was dedicated on May 28th, 1908. The original frame church was converted into a parish hall, which still operates and is open today.
On Sunday October 5th, 1936, the stone church was destroyed by fire at three in the afternoon. The Holy Water font and statue of St. Anthony were saved from the fire and are original to the first Church. The parishioners worked together to rebuild the present church using much of the original walls and structure. The ceiling was changed from Gothic to Romanesque, and the priceless stain glass windows by Guido Nincheri were installed.
St. Mary’s school (now closed) was founded in 1961 to serve the needs of the community.
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Parish in Erinsville originally started as a mission, with a priest traveling from St. Anthony of Padua Church in Centreville. In those days, the Mass was celebrated in any available farm house or barn. In 1844, a graveyard was established (in the present location of Assumption Cemetery), and approximately five years later construction started on a church and rectory in this location by Fr. Bernard Higgins. This church served the needs of the parish community as far as Flinton, ON.
In 1868 Fr. Stanton, replacing Fr. Higgins started raising funds for the construction of a larger church on the present day location, as the community was outgrowing the capacity of the current church. Construction began in 1870, and by Christmas of the same year the first Holy Mass was celebrated. The church did not look as it does today, there was no tower, sacristy, rectory and the church only had a small basement.
Father Stanton’s successor, Father O’Donaghue was instrumental in replacing the overcrowded school at Thomas and Tullow Streets in 1876 with a new and more spacious school, St. Patrick’s, located across from the church and which is still in operation today. It is speculated that the structure of the school was the former White Lake Church that was relocated. The current school building was built in 1940, replacing the previous wood building that had grown too small for the needs of the school.
The rectory (1900) and tower (1907) were both added to the church under the leadership of Father Carey, and the bell was donated by Miss Anne Killoran. During the depression, the parish sponsored summer socials and athletic events that became cornerstone events with the community.
