JUSTIN WELBY was slated to visit the Cathedral of St Jago de la Vega in Spanish Town, St Catherine, during his sojourn in Jamaica from Thursday, July 18 to Sunday, July 21 to observe the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands’ 200th anniversary, but that item on the itinerary was scratched.

The origin of this, the oldest Anglican cathedral in the Caribbean, can be traced back to about 1525 when it was built on the site of the Spanish Chapel of the Red Cross. After the invasion in 1655 and subsequent conquest of Jamaica by the British, the invaders destroyed the original Catholic cathedral and replaced it with the Anglican Church, which was built in 1666 on the original foundations, and with much of the old material.

In 1712 the church was destroyed by a hurricane, and was rebuilt in 1714, making it 310 years old. It was deemed a cathedral of the Jamaican diocese on November 28, 1843. The church is dedicated to St James, the patron saint of Spain. It subsequently fell into disrepair, and was restored in 1901. It was destroyed by the 1907 earthquake, and was restored in 1908, and is now also called the St Catherine Parish Church or the Spanish Town Cathedral.

Its historical value is based on the fact that it is the first Anglican cathedral outside of England and the oldest cathedral in the former British colonies. After Fort Charles, in Port Royal, the Spanish Town Cathedral is the oldest English foundation in Jamaica.

The building is a merger of Spanish and British colonial architectural styles, combining round headed and pointed arches, classical quoins, and medieval buttresses. The tower, added in 1817, is crowned with one of the few steeples found in the Caribbean.

It is actually two buildings joined together at the point of the transepts and the chancel. The present cruciform shape has been built upon the foundation of an earlier Spanish church. The nave and transept are in Romanesque style, characterised by the rounded shape at the top of the windows and the doors.

The inside of the structure, too, has changed over the years. For instance, in the 1840s the decorated plaster ceiling and the panelling were replaced with a dark-stained planked roof. Mahogany, stained glass and marble are some of the materials that the fixtures are made of. A piece of woodwork drops to a polygonal mahogany raised pulpit. Memorial slabs, once embedded in the floor were removed and replaced by English glazed tiles.

The cathedral is a repository of historical artefacts and marble monuments dedicated to several governors of the island and their wives. These include an enviable collection of John Bacon’s sculptures. It is said that most of the intricate pieces were made by the celebrated Bacon, who produced 12 pieces for Jamaica, three of which are housed in the cathedral.

Of the Bacon monuments, there is one that honours the Earl of Effingham, a former governor, and his countess. There is also a monument by Scottish sculptor, Sir John Steell, to the Countess of Elgin whose husband was once the governor of Jamaica. Sir Thomas Modyford, governor of Jamaica 1664-1671, is also immortalised in marble.

The church once contained the oldest baptismal and marriage records in the island, and its baptismal and marriage registers date back to 1668. The burial register dates from 1671. Many of the well-known personalities of the 17th and 18th centuries were buried in the churchyard. The inscriptions on the slabs, tablets and monuments give brief insights into the lives and times of the people who regularly attended the church.

“As the oldest cathedral in the colonial Empire, outside of England, the Cathedral of St Jago de la Vega plays her role as a teacher unravelling a history of the tradition and legacy of worship as is evident in the monuments erected in memory and honour of past governors, members of the legislature and the local planters,” the Cathedral of St Jago de la Vega Website says.

“It is a place where an impressive collection of John Bacon sculptors may be found. The Cathedral also plays her role as the seat of spiritual comfort as she opens her doors to weekly services to encourage daily devotions and meditation and outreach to the community.”