San Juan County is a unique county in the state of Washington, being made up entirely of islands reachable only by water or air. Saint Francis Catholic Parish is unique in the Archdiocese of Seattle, encompassing all of the islands in the San Juan Archipelago. There have always been special challenges for the Catholic faithful in these islands and for the Catholic priests ministering to these people.

In 1838, after negotiations with the Hudson’s Bay Company resulting from requests by their predominantly Catholic employees in Oregon Territory, Joseph Signay, Bishop of Quebec, Canada, appointed Fathers Francis Blanchet and Modeste Demers as the first two missionary priests for Oregon, “that part of the Diocese of Quebec, which is situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains.” This area included present day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, British Columbia, and parts of Montana and Wyoming.

The two priests journeyed with the annual Hudson’s Bay Company overland brigade out of Montreal, for five thousand, three hundred, and twenty-five zig-zagging miles, a trip that lasted for a total of one hundred and ninety-six days. The journey was made by canoe, with portages (carrying the canoes and gear for some distance), light barges, horses, and finally light boats down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver. Father Demers described part of the journey that took them through the mountains, in a letter to his brother:
Father Blanchet and Father Demers spent the next four years travelling endlessly over their huge mission territory. In 1840, Father Blanchet visited Whidbey Island where he said Mass for four hundred Suquamish people and baptized one hundred and twenty-two children. Bringing the Faith to the native people would continue to be a large part of the Catholic mission in the Northwest.

Slowly, a few at a time, more missionary priests were sent to the territory by both British and United States dioceses whose governments, by treaty, jointly occupied the territory until 1846. The first permanent mission was established by Father Blanchet at Cowlitz Prairie, near present day Toledo, Washington, in 1839. The Diocese of Vancouver Island, was created in 1846 by Pope Gregory XVI. The diocese of Western Washington, first called Nesqually, and later changed to Seattle, was created in 1850. By the 1850’s the San Juan Islands were being visited by priests from the two new dioceses. In 1860, on San Juan Island, a log cabin church was built and a cemetery established as Saint Francis Xavier Mission. Transportation was by canoe or rowboat across the saltwater, by horse drawn vehicle on land, and sometimes many miles were covered on foot, one humble priest often walking bare-footed.

The log cabin church burned in 1874 to be replaced by a temporary dwelling house also used as a chapel where some of the visiting priests spent many months in residence. The small but devout and determined congregation wanted a real church, but ten years went by before this was accomplished. The present Saint Francis Church was built in 1884 under the supervision of Father Regis Manioloux of Saint Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Port Townsend, Saint Francis being a mission of that parish at the time. The church was located just east of where the original log church had been at the Madden Lane cemetery property.

From 1900-1910, Saint Francis Mission was administered by the priests from Sedro-Wooley, Washington. Then in 1910, it became a mission of Saint Mary’s Parish in Anacortes with pastor Father Gustave Treunet. At first, Father Treunet would only say Mass at Saint Francis four times a year when there was a fifth Sunday in a month. On these Sundays there was no Mass in Anacortes. Father Treunet travelled by commercial steam vessels, and later by ferry. He was the first island pastor to drive a horseless carriage. Father Treunet was pastor to Saint Francis Mission for thirty-eight years until his death in 1948. He made many friends in that time, Catholic and non-Catholic, and is still remembered by parishioners today.

In 1955, Father Paul Auer was assigned pastor of Saint Mary’s Parish in Anacortes, and its mission on San Juan Island. Father Auer had been ordained in 1945, in Illinois, for The Society of the Divine Word, “the world’s largest Catholic order of priests and brothers who focus on missionary work.” In addition to English, he spoke German, Japanese, and Chinese and studied and taught at the Catholic University of Japan and the Catholic University of China. He was the last priest to leave Tsingtao, China, as the Communists took over the country in 1949.

When Father Auer came to the San Juan Islands he brought the indefatigable zeal of a missionary priest. He said Sunday Mass weekly at Saint Francis, followed by catechetical instruction for teenagers. He organized weekly religious instruction for children, and visited parishioners on San Juan Island and other islands when possible. With the help of Father Eugene Healy, S.J., and newly ordained Jesuits from the seminary in Port Townsend, Masses were said on Orcas Island, Lopez Island, and at Our Lady of Good Voyage private chapel at Roche Harbor, during the summer months. Mass on Orcas was first said in private homes and later at Rosario Resort Hotel, the Odd Fellows Hall, and the Madrona Club library. Mass on Lopez was celebrated at Henderson Camp (later named Camp Nor’wester), and at the Galley Restaurant.

When Archbishop Thomas Connolly expressed his wish to establish Saint Francis as a parish, Father Auer worked toward that goal. He bought a piece of land in Friday Harbor where there was room for expansion of parish facilities, and had the church building moved there in 1959. A parish needs a rectory and office for the use of a full-time resident priest, so Father Auer and the men of the San Juan congregation built a small rectory.

Land for the parish was also purchased on Orcas and Lopez Islands. On April 8,1995, after twenty years of celebrating Sunday Mass at Emmanuel Church in Eastsound, at the gracious invitation of the Episcopal community, the Orcas parishioners and pastor Father Tom Garvin, along with parish members from other islands would joyfully celebrate the dedication by Archbishop Thomas Murphy of their own Saint Francis Church building on the land purchased in 1962. It was decided that the congregation on Lopez was too small to support a building campaign at the time and it eventually moved to Center Church, which interestingly was build in 1887 as a community church, primarily by five pioneer families, one of which was Catholic.

Father Auer truly followed in the spirit of Saint Arnold Janssen, founder of the Society of The Divine Word, who once said, “To proclaim the Good News is the first and greatest act of love of neighbor.” Father Auer loved instructing people in the Faith to the end of his earthly life because he knew and loved the Divine Word, Jesus Christ. Shortly before his death in September 2000, Father Auer said that if he didn’t have to serve time in Purgatory, he wanted to go there to shorten the sufferings of the other souls.

In 1968, Saint Francis became a parish with a resident priest, Father Gerald Moffat. More than a dozen pastors have served the parish in the islands to the present, assisted by many visiting priests, the longest service being eight years by Father Raymond Heffernan, now senior priest in residence. Current pastor, Father Larry Bailey was assigned to Saint Francis in 2014.

Even with a priest in residence, the challenges remain in a small island parish. There are enough parish jobs on all the islands to keep everyone busy: teaching catechism, helping at Mass and in the office, maintaining buildings and land, participating on parish councils and committees, to name a few.

Transportation between islands is always an issue. Some priests have travelled by airplane, but most have relied on the ferries (for the most part more comfortable that the early canoes and rowing boats). Father Auer used his own boat, weather permitting, even travelling to Orcas Island one time in the middle of the night, and wading ashore, to administer the Sacraments to a dying parishioner. Mass schedules are subject to the ferry schedules. Parishioners on Orcas and Lopez Islands have always been generous in providing transportation for priests to and from ferry terminals and airports, as well as making sure priests get fed when coming to their islands to bring “nourishment for the soul.”

There have also been parishioners on smaller islands. Shaw Island had few Catholics over the years until three orders of women religious established houses there in the 1970’s. Since then Sunday Mass has been available on Shaw almost continuously, provided by resident chaplains. Also, there have been Catholic families on Waldron, Blakely and Crane, islands not served by the ferries.

Parishioners from the larger islands have participated together on parish councils. Saint Francis parishioners from all the islands get together from time to time for retreats or to celebrate special occasions such as anniversaries, dedications, and confirmations.

Isn’t it interesting that the San Juan Islands, named for Saint John the Baptist, are under the patronage of the first Christian missionary? For John the Baptist was sent by God to proclaim to the world the Divine Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. It is also interesting that Father Paul Auer who prepared Saint Francis Xavier Mission in the San Juan Islands to become a parish, was first a missionary in China, the land originally evangelized by Saint Francis Xavier.

Father Auer had great plans for Saint Francis Parish. Each subsequent congregation and their pastor, through their unique roles in ministry, must work towards their mission of strengthening their faith, witnessing to the Faith in the island communities, and passing the Faith on to the next generation. As Father Auer once said, “…we do not rest on our oars to drift with the tide, but we push on to new achievements in the years ahead.”

References:
St. Francis Parish History Files
Stmaryanacortes.com
Demers, Modeste, Letter to his brother, Provincial Archives Victoria, B.C.

John Chapter 1, 1-34
Schoenberg, S.J., W.P. (1998). A History of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest. Pastoral Press
Anacortes American Newspaper, September 28, 2000
Keith, Gordon (1989), The Ferryboat Islands
Richardson, David (1964), Magic Islands
Conversations with Father Paul Auer and fellow parishioners at Saint Mary’s, Anacortes and Saint Francis, Friday Harbor