Chapel/Cemetery 200th Committee Meets
by Rick Winterson Momentum (and excitement) for observing the 200th Anniversary of Father Francis Anthony Matignon’s death is growing. This was increasingly obvious at the most recent Anniversary Committee meeting on April 12. To briefly review, Fr. Matignon served as the Catholic priest for Boston and all of New England from the late 1700s until his death on September 15, 1818. Boston’s first Bishop, Jean-Louis de Cheverus, erected the St. Augustine Chapel to Matignon’s memory, breaking ground in December, 1818, and completing the Chapel in 1819. Fr. Matignon’s remains are interred in the Chapel. Since then, Cardinal Cushing built the Matignon High School in North Cambridge. Observances at the Chapel are already planned later this year, beginning on Friday evening, September 14; Cardinal [...]