Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bahamian meals that you can eat on the small outdoor terrace. Sunsets are particularly good
here. You should call before 3pm and let them know if you plan to come for dinner.
OLD BIGHT
Sitting on top of a little ridge beside the road is
St Francis Assisi Catholic Church
, a
Father Jerome legacy. It has a Gothic facade topped by a cross and an engraving of St Fran-
cis with a flock of birds. Its interior has frescoes and sculptures. Mrs Burrows, across the
road, has the key.
Worth a visit, too, is
St Mary's Church
, fronted by an African flame tree. The church
was a gift of the family of Blaney Balfour, the British governor who read the emancipation
proclamation.
Armbrister Creek leads to a crystal-clear lake called
Boiling Hole
that bubbles and
churns under certain tidal conditions, fueling local fears that it is haunted by a monster.
Baby sharks and rays can be seen cruising the sandy bottom. Birdlife also abounds in the
mangrove estuary.
FATHER JEROME
John Hawes - hermit and humanitarian - was born in England in 1876 to an
upper-middle-class family. He was a visionary, prize-winning architect before
entering theological college in 1901, preparing to becoming an Anglican minis-
ter.
Once ordained, he vowed to emulate the life of St Francis of Assisi and lived
briefly as a tramp. In 1908 he came to the Bahamas and traveled around the is-
lands to rebuild churches that had been destroyed by a hurricane, utilizing thick
stone and Roman arches. Hawes offended local sensibilities, however, while
preaching on Harbour Island. He asked the congregation why the whites were
sitting at the front and the blacks at the back, when all men are created equal.
'The congregation nearly fainted with shock and I was rushed out of the church
as quickly as possible,' Hawes recorded.
Between bouts of preaching, the eccentric Englishman worked as a mule
driver in Canada, a fox terrier breeder, a cattle wrangler, and a sailor. In 1911 he
converted to Catholicism and studied for the priesthood in Rome before moving
to Australia to serve as a bush priest during the gold rush.
In 1939 Hawes came to Cat Island to live as a hermit and began work on his
hermitage atop Como Hill, renamed Mt Alvernia after the site in Tuscany where
St Francis received the wounds of the cross. Meanwhile, he lived in a cave amid
snakes, tarantulas and crabs, and took unto himself the name Father Jerome.
