The Roseau Cathedral and the beadle
Part 2 by Bernard Lauwyck
The Papal Zouaves had a grey uniform with red trim and baggy pants.
My first article on this subject brought back memories, to some of you, of an uniformed lay-man, walking up and down the aisle during Mass in the Roseau Cathedral, enforcing reverence and silence in the House of God. While this church warden was named a beadle in English, in Dominica the French term “bedeau” was used.
According to diocesan records, the Roseau Cathedral already had a bedeau in 1824. Beadles disappeared from Catholic churches after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
Mr. Hesketh Casimir and Cardinal Felix provided me with the name of the last beadle of the Roseau Cathedral. His name was Theodile St. Hilaire and he was the grandfather of the late Frederick Osborne Symes (+2013), Speaker of the House of Assembly from August 3, 1995 till April 16, 2000.
To all eye witness accounts, Theodile St. Hilaire was a most impressive beadle at the Roseau Cathedral in the 1940’s and early 1950’s.
As he had a black uniform trimmed with red and carried a ceremonial sword and halberd (= a staff with an axe) the beadle was in popular thought linked to the Swiss guards of the Vatican.
Even up to today, “Helvetians” or Swiss guards can still be seen in their colourful uniforms, at the gates of Vatican City . 
The official date of birth of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, is January 22, 1506 because on that day, 150 Swiss soldiers entered for the first time the Vatican, where they were blessed by Pope Julius II. [Wikipedia] The Swiss Cantons were overpopulated and very poor and therefore a lot of their young men chose to become a mercenary soldier abroad. They have a long and proud history of serving the Pope.
In 1860, these Swiss troops needed help with the defense of the Papal States as they were under heavy attack.
The Papal Zouaves ( “Zuavi Pontifici” ) were an international infantry force of volunteers, mainly young unmarried men, who assisted the Pope and his Swiss troops in their struggle against the Italian unification efforts of King Victor Emanuel II, who wanted to create one Kingdom of Italy on the Italian peninsula, with Rome as capital. To do this he had to conquer and annex the papal states, which covered a sizable portion of present day Italy and contained the City of Rome.
According to Wikipedia the regiment contained 11000 men, among them 3181 Dutch, 2964 French, 1634 Belgian (mainly Flemish), 700 Italians and 500 Canadians.
What I can add from my own research is that among them there was one catholic brave soldier from Roseau, Dominica, who lost his life in the defense of the Pope’s territories.
In THE ECCCLESIASTICAL BULLETIN OF ROSEAU we read that “Bishop Poirier… had conceived the scheme of raising a native clergy, and sent three young boys of Roseau to France to commence their ecclesiastical studies. They were Francis Hugh Tran, Alexander Heffington Robinson, and John William Gannon. They left Roseau on June 13th, 1864. If none of those youths became a priest, one of them gave his life for the Holy Church as a Pontifical Zouave.”
The name of this heroic volunteer, one of the three, was not identified in the EBR. He might have lost his life in the final battle for Rome on September 20, 1870, wherein 19 Papal Zouaves died (Wikipedia).
The Italian army of King Victor Emanuel II , which was numerically vastly superior to the papal forces, breached the walls and entered Rome on that day and Pope Pius IX became virtually “a prisoner in his palace.” Several zouaves were executed or murdered by the Italian forces following the Capture of Rome. The Pontifical Zouaves were disbanded.
In memory of the capture of Rome numerous Italian cities named the road leading up to their local Cathedral “Venti Settembre” ( September 20) [WIKIPEDIA].
In the book “TWO YEARS IN THE PONTIFICAL ZOUAVES” published in 1871 by Joseph Powel (available on-line) we read on page 287:
“At the time of the taking of Rome by Victor Emmanuel’s troops… the [Zouave] corps numbered about 3500 men in all. Of these the most numerous were the Dutch, then the French, and after these the Belgians, Canadians, English and Irish, Swiss, Germans…and many other…including three or four blacks, and one Chinese. ”
On page 141 Joseph Powel mentioned his Zouave friend Robinson.
Further research revealed that a parish priest of Colihaut, a French Eudist missionary, was also involved with the Pontifical Zouaves, ten years before the Capture of Rome:
“in 1862… Fr. Peter Lehaire was appointed parish priest of Colihaut. Having fought valiantly against the Garibaldians and won distinction, as a pontifical Zouave, under the famous Generals Pimodan and Lamoriciere, whose soldiers, in spite of their gallant resistance were over-powered at Casteldidardo [1860] by the numbers of the opposing forces, the young priest was eminently fitted to undertake the fight against the powers of darkness”.
The Garibaldians were named after general Giuseppe Garibaldi who is considered one of Italy’s founding heroes.
THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA provides us with some background : “The pope did not suffer the annexation [of his territory]..quietly. He excommunicated Victor Emmanuel and those who had assisted him. At the same time he issued a call for the formation of a volunteer army” The French general Lamoricière took command of the papal forces. “in a very short time the volunteer army saw active service…At Castelfidardo, the Piedmontese [Italian] army met the papal forces under Lamoricière, who was defeated on 18 September 1860”
The battle is remembered for being bloody, and for the highly disparate numbers of troops- less than 10,000 papal soldiers to 39,000 Italians. Zouave Peter Lehaire escaped death and arrived two years later in Colihaut were he devoted the rest of his life to his parish. He died of pneumonia on 2th December 1868 and was buried in the church of Colihaut.
You will agree with me that this is an interesting part of Dominica’s history.
DOMINICA , its treasures, its history 