Description

Charlottetown's All Souls' Chapel
has been called "the Sistine
Chapel of Canada;" but it is no more
the Sistine Chapel than St. Peter's
Cathedral (which it adjoins) is St.
Peter's Basilica in Rome. Nevertheless,
All Souls' Chapel is a unique treasure,
architecturally, artistically, and —
most important of all — spiritually.
The Chapel is a Victorian Gothic
gem on a small, Prince Edward Island
scale. Designed by architect William
Critchlow Harris, Jr. (1854-1913), and
incorporating 18 paint ings by his
brother Robert (1849-1919), it was conceived
as a memorial to the first "priestincumbent"
(as he was called) of St.
Peter's Cathedral, the Reverend George
Hodgson, who died in 1885 at the age of
43. But it soon became a place to remember
other members of the Cathedral
congregation — "all souls" — after
their death. Many of Robert Harris's
paintings in the Chapel were done as
memorials, as were the stained glass
windows. After the paintings and the
windows were complete, the names of
others being memor ial ized were
mounted on brass plates.