Fr Cornelius O'Hanlon an Irish Dominican priest succeeded Fr O H Christophe, who was French, and Fr F Kunes, a Belgian as parish priest of La Divina Pastora, Siparia. He arrived in Siparia in 1861, and remained as parish priest for over twelve years. The first task he undertook was the completion of the presbytery begun by Fr Kunes. It was a beautiful, wooden, gabled building, which featured gingerbread work.

Fr O'Hanlon also rebuilt the church building, which he found to be in a serious state of disrepair. The people of the parish heroically brought the building materials on their heads and shoulders, because there were no pack animals available at the time, and, in Fr O'Hanlon's own words, “It was....very difficult to go to the village, there being no bridge across the rivers, and no road except an Indian pathway.”

These building materials would have been brought from the South Oropouche jetty, over hilly terrain. Maybe this is what caused Fr O'Hanlon to approach the then Governor to have a proper road to Siparia constructed (again, from South Oropouche).

He was successful in this venture. He was able to build the church due mainly to the generous monetary donations left by the pilgrims of the various races and religions, who visited the church daily to pray. Archbishop Louis Joachim Gonin donated three hundred and twelve dollars, a large amount in those days, towards the church building fund.

Fr O'Hanlon described the completed building thus:
“The church is fifty feet long and thirty broad. The foundation is of stone, the posts and flooring of Balata timber, which is so hard that it does not float on water. The remainder of the building is of old cedar. There are two windows from Paris, which cost a hundred and forty-one dollars. To prevent any accident there are fifty marble plaqs (plaques), each a foot square, on which the oil and candles are burnt.”

Fr O'Hanlon also cleared the church land at Siparia of squatters, and had tree crops planted on them. He personally searched the government offices for proof of ownership of private lands in the village, and because of this action was able to ensure that a number of the villagers obtained the titles to lands they possessed, without proof of ownership. He also led landless residents in making a successful claim for grants of free land in the village.

This energetic and very caring priest soon learned that it was a Hindu custom to wash before prayer. It is also a Muslim custom. Because of the large number of East Indians visiting the church each day, he decided to make water available to them. The village itself had no official water supply.

So Fr O'Hanlon had a number of wells dug on the outskirts of the village - some of the locations of these being Murray Trace, Coora Road and Well Road.

He also provided a number of buckets for the use of these pilgrims. Even later on, he persuaded the authorities to construct proper roads leading to the many wells. Some of these wells still produce water to this day.

Fr O'Hanlon enjoyed the respect of the people. He had a custom of walking through the streets of the village at nights, during the season of the feast-day, when crowds of visitors converged on Siparia, some of them being people of questionable character.

 This walking of his was a type of policing - there was no police presence in the village in those days. It is said that when the merry-makers saw him approaching, they would say one to another, “Look La Divin' makin' the rounds!”