Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel Parish / Sainte-Marie
Established in 1820
First church in 1866
First priest : 1870
The first settlers, coming from Memramcook, arrived in the area in 1820 and settled in Bouctouche and gradually moved up river. A number of small villages were established inland.
The first church, dedicated to Our Lady of Mont Carmel was built in 1866 while Sainte-Marie was still a mission of Bouctouche parish. The first priest, Fr. Louis-Joseph Ouellet, arrived four years later, in 1870. This church would serve as a place of worship for over fifty years.
A second church, blessed in 1914, would unfortunately be destroyed by fire in January 1953.
In 1955, parishioners erected a Calvary in the cemetery as a memorial for the bicentennial of the Acadian deportation. The same year, construction was undertaken to build a new simple, peaceful church.
Sainte-Marie is the mother parish for Saint-Paul, Adamsville and Saint-Norbert.
Each summer since 1957, the beautiful countryside in Sainte-Marie is host to the Kent County Agricultural Fair.