On August 25, 1687, Padre Felix de Mosset established the first mission in the San Juan area – the beginnings of the Parish of St John the Baptist – making our parish one of the oldest in the country.

Padre Felix was assisted by Brother Gil de Villamayor – both Capuchins (a branch of the Franciscan Order) who arrived from Spain. Until this time the Parish of St Joseph, the capital city at the time, and oldest parish in the country, ministered to the needs of the San Juan faithful.

San Juan, originally Aricagua, was renamed San Juan by the last Spanish governor Don José Maria Chacon. He initiated the construction of the road linking St Joseph to San Juan.

Parishioners dressed in ancestral wear for the celebrations

St John the Baptist celebrated its 320th anniversary on the Feast of Christ the King (November 25) last year. Fr Christian Pineau FMI chose this feast to stress, he said, “Christ is King of our area, our heart and our lives”.

A kaleidoscope of colours marked the celebrations since people were asked to dress in their ancestor’s native wear.

Vicar General Msgr Christian Pereira presided at the Mass, assisted by Fr Pineau.

Parishes in the Suburban Vicariate were all invited to be part of the celebration of praise and thanksgiving to God.

In 1688, one year after the establishment of the parish, the Governor Sebastian de Rotota wrote to the king of Spain advising that he had “liberated” 302 Indians from slavery and had settled them a league from St Joseph. He described San Juan as a place well-suited, healthy, with an abundance of good water and surrounded by sloping lands.

During the period 1682 to 1692, some 22 priests served the parish. In the same period, 15 died. Of the 22 priests serving the parish between 1682 and 1692, some12 died of natural causes and three by violence. Fr Felix died in February 1699 of natural causes.

In the 1780s the Spanish Governor gave the Church the site for the construction of the church building but construction did not begin until 1828. The original church was oriented east to west and measured 72 feet by 32 feet.

It was built in the Tuscan style and was constructed of stones and bricks. It was completed and blessed in 1832. The first serving parish priest of St John the Baptist was Fr Dr Graciliano Alfonzo 1825 –

For about a century after this time, the parish extended to Success Village, Laventille, in the west; to St Joseph in the east; to El Socorro and Aranguez in the south and to Santa Cruz in the north. By the 1940s, however, to serve a burgeoning Catholic population, adequately, the parish was gradually divided into smaller geographical areas.

Because of the growing population in the San Juan area a decision was taken to extend the original church building and to reorient it, from north to south. Parts of the original structure remain to this very day. Archbishop Anthony Pantin blessed the extension on 16 October 1973.

Most of the information for this article was gathered from A History of the Catholic Church at San Juan, by Malcolm Joab.