About Dennery Part 3
II. THE CLERGY IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 18th CENTURY
According to a list of Priests in St.Lucia drawn by Abbe Per- reau in l765, there was no priest-in-charge ("desservant") of"L'Anse
Canot et Maboya". After giving the list Abbe Rennard(Histoire Religieu-se des Antilles Francaises,p.433) writes that this district “appeared to be ready to receive one". There must have been one in or about 1768, when the Count d'Ennery made the present of a chalice to the Parish. It is a gilt chalice now kept at the Presbytery, Castries, on which the following Latin inscription can be read:
"Ex. Dona. Claro D.D. Vict. Ther. D'ENNERY. MARTINIC. & S. LUC. PRO. REGE. GUBERN. GEN. S. I .R. COM. PAR FUND."
This inscription says plainly that the Count d'Ennery gave the Chalice when he was Governor General for the King of Martinique and St.Lucia. But the last letters and words(S.I.R. Com.Par.Fund.)have not. yet been fully interpreted they probably mean that he was the founder of the Parish.
As the Paris Registers have not been preserved before 1773,no precision can be given about the first years. In fact, the Registers still preserved in the “Ministere des Colonies" in Paris give us on1y the acts between 1773 and 1775 and between 1777 and l787.The folios of the Acts of Dennery, Praslin and Micoud have been bound together, as for many years, there was but one priest for the 3 parishes. Here are the names of the priests of that period:
1. ABBE FRANCOIS BERTHELET was Parish Priest of Dennery up to the beginning of 1773.Perhaps he was the first Parish Priest.From 1773 to 1775,Abbe Cavi1lon,Parish Priest of Micoud, was in charge of Dennery.
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