Our Lady of Peace Mission

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Our Lady of
Peace Mission

Lesser
Slave Lake

Dunvegan

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A commemorative cairn for the Our Lady of Peace Mission is located west of Calgary, off the road that runs from Cochrane to Bragg Creek.

The mission has its roots in the itinerant activities of Roman Catholic priests who, beginning in 1865, followed Aboriginal people on buffalo hunts. Father Scollen, O.M.I. was the first priest at the mission. Initially known as the Mission of Our Lady of the Prairies, the first mission

Father Scollen o.m.i. He
served at the Our Lady of Peace mission.

chapel was built in 1872, shortly after the establishment of the nearby Methodist mission at Morley. Initially only a small wintering hut, the mission continued to move and after several relocations, in 1889, a stone church was constructed and the mission renamed The Immaculate Conception. Eventually St. Mary's Cathedral, completed in 1957, replaced the stone church.

The Our Lady of Peace mission was developed as mission to the Blackfoot, the dominant tribe on the plains. As the city of Calgary grew and the Blackfoot people settled on reserves further south, the Our Lady of Peace Mission shifted its focus to the immigrant communities of Calgary.

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