St. Mary Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Cemetery
Location:
137 Lakeshore Road West, Mississauga, Peel Region, Ontario, Canada.
Concession 3 SDS Lot 3, Toronto Township.
GPS:
Latitude: 43.54914°N
Longitude: -79.58795°W
History:
The first resident priests of Peel County resided at St Patrick’s Church at Wildfield in Toronto Gore Township, serving the whole county from 1829-1856. The parish was divided at this time and the Fifth Line Church (known by various names over the years) at Elmbank became responsible for the southern portion of Peel County and formed the beginning of what is known as St Patrick’s parish.
The cemetery at Elmbank could have been used for early burials of Roman Catholic parishoners in the Port Credit area. Today this cemetery lies within the boundaries of Pearson International Airport. Discussions took place in 1994-95 to remove the cemetery to another location to allow for the building of an additional runway. This matter has yet to be finalized.
In 1866, Dixie was chosen to become the parish headquarters as it was more centrally located. Priests from here served Port Credit until 1913 when Port Credit became a parish in its own right. Records prior to 1913 are connected to St Patrick’s.
The first St Mary Star of the Sea cemetery covered ¾ of an acre of the two acres purchased from Mr. McDonald. It was blessed on September 19, 1875.
Father Sheridan provided some the background to Perkins Bull in 1939. Apparently when someone wished to make an interment in the cemetery, the priest at Dixie would be consulted. He would tell them to mark out a plot in the cemetery wherever they wished. If it happened that a coffin was uncovered and the new coffin could not be placed next to it, the new coffin was placed on the top of the old one. When Father Sheridan arrived at Port Credit in 1917, little care had been taken of the cemetery. He believed there to be approximately 600 graves with no plot plan. He proceeded to have the cemetery cleaned up and the fences around the plots removed.
By 1918, the cemetery was ordered closed and a new St. Mary’s cemetery, known as ‘St. Mary’s Port Credit’ and located at the north end of Dickson Road in Mississauga, was opened. However, it appears that the new St. Mary’s cemetery did not begin to become used regularly for burials until 1923.
In the spring of 1952, a campaign was launched by the parishioners for the building of a new church and the remodeling of the old church as a school. Later, land was needed for the school grounds and a parking lot. It appears that a considerable amount of the cemetery was used for these purposes. Currently, no one knows what happened to many of the monuments. It may be that some were paved over. Some families removed burials and stones to the new St. Mary’s cemetery.
In addition, later burials from the cemetery may have been moved to Mount Peace and Assumption cemeteries. Today, only 30 monuments remain in St. Mary Star of the Sea cemetery.
Trudy Mann, August 1993
Transcription purchase:
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