Sacred Heart Church, Georgetown
GUYANA, 2008, 150 years of Jesuit
presence in Guyana, Scott 3994
A hundred and fifty years ago Pope Pius IX asked the British Jesuits to take responsibility for the Church in British Guiana. Fr. James Etheridge, SJ was appointed as the first superior in 1857, was ordained bishop the following year, and remained the vicar apostolic of what was then British Guiana until his death in 1877. In 1860, he saw the need for another church in Georgetown for the spiritual needs of the Portuguese. At Christmas 1861, the Church of the Sacred Heart was opened for midnight mass and was solemnly blessed by the bishop on June 22, 1862. It served the Catholic population of Georgetown until a fatal fire on Christmas morning in 2004 totally destroyed the church and the two schools attached to it.
St. Stanislaus College, Georgetown
GUYANA, 2008, 150 years of Jesuit presence in
Guyana, Scott 3993
On May 1, 1866 the Jesuits began the Catholic Grammar School, a school for boys, in Georgetown. Its location changed about five times, but it eventually ended up in 1907 at the eastern end of the present property. On October 22, 1907, the school changed its name and nature and became Saint Stanislaus College. Since 1975 it has been co-educational, and half of its 500 students today are girls. In 1976 it became a government school and in 1980 ceased to be run by Jesuits.