Situated at the downtown intersection of Rue Pavee and Rue Monseigneur Guilloux in the heart of Port-au-Prince, just a few blocks south of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, Port-au-Prince and northwest of the Champ de Mars, the complex of Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (known in French as Cathedrale Episcopale de la Sainte-Trinite and in Haitian Creole as Katedral Sent Trinite) holds an extraordinary place in both the religious and the artistic history of the Western Hemisphere. Within the Protestant and worldwide Anglican Communion tradition, it stands as the historic cradle of an indigenous, self-governing Black church founded in 1861 to 1863; within world art history, it has been celebrated since the mid-twentieth century as the Sistine Chapel of the Caribbean.
Complementing Haiti's great pilgrimage sanctuaries such as the Saut-d'Eau Pilgrimage Waterfalls and Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Central Plateau and the St. James Church and Sacred Basin of Plaine-du-Nord in the north, Holy Trinity Cathedral became a beacon of cultural empowerment when thirteen masters of the Haitian Renaissance painted fourteen monumental biblical murals across its interior walls between 1950 and 1951. There, for the first time in a major cathedral of the Americas, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and the heavenly hosts were depicted with dark skin and Haitian features amid palm-thatched villages and Caribbean hills.
IThe Mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Vision of Bishop James Theodore Holly, and the Theological Breakthrough of the 1950 Murals
The cathedral is dedicated to the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity (La Sainte-Trinite), the central Christian mystery of one God in three co-equal Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The founding of Holy Trinity Parish in Port-au-Prince was the life's work of one of the most remarkable religious leaders of the nineteenth-century Atlantic world: Bishop James Theodore Holly (1829 to 1911, revered in Haiti as Monseigneur Jacques Theodore Holly).
Born to free Black Roman Catholic parents in Washington, D.C., in 1829 and received into the Episcopal Church in Detroit before his ordination to the priesthood in 1856, Father Holly saw in the Republic of Haiti (which had won its independence in 1804 as the world's first free Black republic) a providential homeland where people of African descent could build a self-governing apostolic Church free from racial subjugation. In May 1861, Holly led the 110-member New Haven Pioneer Company from Connecticut to settle on the Drouillard estate near Port-au-Prince, and in 1863 he formally established Holy Trinity Parish (Paroisse de la Sainte-Trinite) in the capital.
On November 8, 1874, at Grace Church in New York City, James Theodore Holly was consecrated missionary Bishop of the Haitian Orthodox Apostolic Church in communion with the American Episcopal Church, becoming the very first African American bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church and the second Black bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion (after Samuel Ajayi Crowther of Nigeria). Across a thirty-seven-year episcopate lasting until his death on March 13, 1911, Bishop Holly ordained an indigenous Haitian clergy, translated liturgical texts, founded parish schools and medical clinics, and laid the spiritual foundations for what is today the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, the largest diocese by baptized membership in the entire Episcopal Church.
Just as Bishop Holly pioneered ecclesial self-determination in the nineteenth century, the sixth Episcopal Bishop of Haiti, Bishop Charles Alfred Voegeli (who served from 1943 to 1971), together with American watercolorist DeWitt Peters and writer Selden Rodman (co-directors of the famous Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince), catalyzed a historic visual theology of inculturation inside the fifth Holy Trinity Cathedral between 1950 and 1951.
Up to that time, virtually every devotional painting and statue in Haitian churches was imported from Europe, portraying Christ, Mary, and the saints as fair-skinned Europeans while associating darkness with sin or evil. Timed to coincide with the 1949 to 1950 Bicentennial Exposition of Port-au-Prince, Bishop Voegeli authorized Rodman and Peters to invite thirteen of Haiti's greatest self-taught (Naive) master painters (including Philome Obin, Castera Bazile, Rigaud Benoit, Gabriel Leveque, Wilson Bigaud, Prefete Duffaut, Toussaint Auguste, Fernand Pierre, and sculptor Jasmin Joseph) to paint fourteen monumental murals in egg tempera directly onto the plastered walls of the apse, transepts, and nave. In these radiant compositions, Christ was crucified on a cobbled Port-au-Prince street, the Infant Jesus was born inside a thatched peasant caille hut surrounded by banana trees, and all the saints and angels wore the dark complexions and everyday dress of Haitian villagers. Completed in March 1951, the cycle was hailed internationally as a landmark of modern Christian art.
First-time visitors to the Holy Trinity block on Rue Pavee are often surprised to discover that the cathedral was only the liturgical heart of a much larger educational, musical, and humanitarian campus. Guided from 1927 onward by the American Anglican religious sisters of the Society of St. Margaret from Boston, the cathedral precinct grew to encompass Holy Trinity Primary and Secondary Schools, the Vocational and Trade School, St. Vincent's School for Handicapped Children (founded in 1945 by Sister Joan Margaret as Haiti's first institution dedicated to educating blind, deaf, and physically disabled children), and the celebrated Holy Trinity Music School and Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestre Philharmonique Sainte-Trinite), which has trained generations of Haitian classical musicians, conductors, and music teachers.
IIOver a Century and a Half Through Four Great Fires, the 1929 Cathedral, the 2010 Earthquake, and the Smithsonian Mural Rescue
Few cathedrals anywhere in the world have endured and risen from as many physical disasters as Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Port-au-Prince: four times reduced to ashes by citywide fires between 1866 and 1908, and shattered a fifth time by the catastrophic earthquake of January 12, 2010.
- May 1861 and 1863Father James Theodore Holly arrives in Haiti and establishes Holy Trinity ParishAfrican American Episcopal priest James Theodore Holly leads 110 emigrants from New Haven, Connecticut, to Haiti in May 1861 and organizes Holy Trinity Parish in downtown Port-au-Prince in 1863.
- November 8, 1874 to March 13, 1911Consecration of Bishop Holly and rebuilding after four devastating firesConsecrated Bishop of Haiti in New York on November 8, 1874, Bishop Holly leads the Haitian Church for 37 years, rebuilding Holy Trinity Church after urban fires destroy four successive structures in 1866, 1873, 1888, and 1908.
- 1923 to 1929Bishop Harry Roberts Carson constructs the fifth Holy Trinity CathedralFollowing the reorganization of the Haitian Church as a Missionary District of the Episcopal Church in 1913, second Bishop Harry Roberts Carson oversees the construction of the fifth cathedral at Rue Pavee and Rue Monseigneur Guilloux, consecrated in 1929.
- 1927 and 1945Arrival of the Sisters of St. Margaret and founding of St. Vincent's SchoolEpiscopal Sisters of St. Margaret arrive in Port-au-Prince in 1927 to direct parish schools, and in 1945 Sister Joan Margaret establishes St. Vincent's School for Handicapped Children.
- 1950 to March 1951Thirteen Haitian master painters execute the fourteen biblical murals inside the CathedralCommissioned by Bishop Charles Alfred Voegeli with DeWitt Peters and Selden Rodman of the Centre d'Art, masters Philome Obin, Castera Bazile, Rigaud Benoit, Wilson Bigaud, and Prefete Duffaut paint the world-renowned mural cycle.
- 1950s to 1970sFoundation of the Holy Trinity Music School, Philharmonic Orchestra, and Pipe OrganSister Anne-Marie founds the Holy Trinity Music School and Philharmonic Orchestra, turning the cathedral into Haiti's premier center for classical music and choral performance, enhanced by a grand 3,000-pipe organ.
- January 12, 2010Magnitude 7.0 earthquake collapses the 1929 Cathedral and triggers the Smithsonian rescueThe January 12, 2010 earthquake destroys the cathedral nave, apse murals, pipe organ, and adjacent school buildings; experts from the Smithsonian Institution and World Monuments Fund rescue and conserve three surviving transept murals.
- 2012 to presentRebuilding of the schools and Music Center and design of the sixth CathedralThe Episcopal Diocese of Haiti restores its educational and musical programs and partners with international architects to build a new seismic-resistant sixth cathedral and museum housing the conserved 1950 to 1951 murals.
The Smithsonian Institution's emergency rescue of the surviving murals after January 2010. When the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010, the reinforced-concrete walls of the eastern apse collapsed completely, shattering the three famous altar murals (The Crucifixion by Philome Obin, The Ascension by Castera Bazile, and The Nativity by Rigaud Benoit) along with Jasmin Joseph's openwork terracotta choir screen and the cathedral's 3,000-pipe organ. Yet amid the devastation, three damaged walls in the north and south transepts remained standing upright under the open sky.
Working against the clock before the onset of the Caribbean hurricane and rainy season, the Haiti Cultural Recovery Project, a joint initiative of the Smithsonian Institution, the Government of Haiti, the World Monuments Fund, and the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti led by Richard Kurin and chief painting conservator Stefano Scafetta, stabilized the cracked masonry with protective facing fabric, carefully detached the painted plaster sections from the walls, and conserved three monumental murals: Castera Bazile's Baptism of Christ, Prefete Duffaut's twin compositions The Temptation of Christ and Procession of the Streets of Jacmel, and the surviving lower register of Wilson Bigaud's masterpiece The Marriage at Cana, while also safeguarding the historic tomb of Bishop James Theodore Holly on the cathedral grounds.
IIIThe Fourteen Biblical Murals of 1950 to 1951, Jasmin Joseph's Terracotta Screen, and the Acoustic Space of the Philharmonic
Built in 1929 on a cruciform plan in a restrained Caribbean Gothic Revival and Mission style with tall pointed windows and smooth white plastered walls, the fifth Holy Trinity Cathedral owed its international fame to the way its architecture became a living vessel for Haitian visual art, terracotta sculpture, and symphonic music.
Dominating the three curved wall panels of the eastern sanctuary apse behind the high altar was the theological heart of the cycle: in the center, Cap-Haitien master Philome Obin (1892 to 1986) painted The Crucifixion, showing a serene, beardless Black Christ wearing eyeglasses crucified on a street in Port-au-Prince against a backdrop of green mountains; on the left, 26-year-old Castera Bazile (1923 to 1966) painted The Ascension of Christ rising above corrugated-tin city roofs; on the right, Rigaud Benoit (1911 to 1986) painted The Nativity of Christ inside a thatched Haitian peasant cottage surrounded by tropical flora, while Gabriel Leveque painted flying angels along the vault ribs above.
Covering more than 50 square meters (550 square feet) across the full height of the north transept's western wall was The Marriage at Cana (Les Noces de Cana), painted in 1951 by twenty-year-old prodigy Wilson Bigaud (1931 to 2010), a pupil of Hector Hyppolite. Bigaud transformed Christ's first miracle into a joyous Haitian country wedding feast complete with traditional drummers, bamboo vaccine horn players, women balancing fruit baskets, cooks roasting a pig, and a warm cameo portrait of Bishop Charles Alfred Voegeli seated beside Jesus.
On the eastern wall of the north transept, Jacmel visionary painter Prefete Duffaut (1923 to 2012) painted two vibrant vertical compositions filled with his signature spiraling mountain roads: The Temptation of Christ and Procession of the Streets of Jacmel. Elsewhere in the transepts and nave shone Philome Obin's Last Supper, Castera Bazile's Baptism of Christ, Toussaint Auguste's Adam and Eve and Flight into Egypt, and Fernand Pierre's Visitation.
Separating the choir stalls and organ console from the sanctuary stood a remarkable openwork screen composed of individually sculpted and kiln-fired terracotta blocks created by sculptor and painter Jasmin Joseph (1923 to 2005). Each pierced clay block featured reliefs of birds, rabbits, sheep, and biblical parables set amid tropical foliage, allowing both light and choral sound to pass freely into the nave.
Located on the cathedral grounds immediately beside the church walls is the stone monument and tomb of Bishop James Theodore Holly (1829 to 1911), founder of the Episcopal Church in Haiti. The monument survived the 2010 earthquake intact and remains a revered pilgrimage shrine for the global Anglican Communion.
Adjacent to the cathedral site stand the rebuilt facilities of the Holy Trinity Music School and Philharmonic Orchestra, alongside St. Vincent's School. The architectural master plan for the sixth Holy Trinity Cathedral features seismic-resistant structural arches engineered with kerf-cut acoustic wood panels to support the Philharmonic Orchestra and choirs, integrated with a dedicated climate-controlled museum gallery displaying the rescued 1950 to 1951 murals.
| Mural Work or Architectural Feature | Artist or Creator (1950 to 1951) | Original Location and Post-2010 Conservation Status |
|---|---|---|
| The Crucifixion, Ascension, and Nativity | Philome Obin, Castera Bazile, Rigaud Benoit | Eastern apse walls; collapsed on January 12, 2010; fragments and high-resolution archival plates preserved |
| The Marriage at Cana (Les Noces de Cana) | Wilson Bigaud (1951, 50 sq. meter tempera mural) | North transept west wall; lower half survived the earthquake and was detached and conserved by the Smithsonian |
| The Baptism of Christ (Le Bapteme du Christ) | Castera Bazile | Transept wall; survived largely intact and successfully removed and conserved by the Smithsonian team |
| Temptation of Christ & Procession of Jacmel | Prefete Duffaut | North transept east wall; both vertical murals survived the 2010 quake and were conserved in situ and detached |
| Tomb of Bishop Holly & Holy Trinity Music School | Bishop Holly (1911); Music School (founded 1950s) | Bishop Holly's tomb stands intact on the grounds; the Music School and Philharmonic Orchestra remain active |
IVThe Lie of the Land and the Facing
It should be stated clearly that the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti and Bishop James Theodore Holly did not employ East Asian geomancy (feng shui) in siting or designing Holy Trinity Cathedral. The urban block at Rue Pavee and Rue Monseigneur Guilloux was chosen in the nineteenth century for its central accessibility in downtown Port-au-Prince so that the church, schools, and clinics could serve the widest possible public. The observations below offer a comparative urban landform reading through the traditional framework of the Hall of Myriad Paths library.
Viewed within the macro-topography of Port-au-Prince at coordinates 18.5432 degrees north, 72.3389 degrees west, the Holy Trinity Cathedral campus occupies level ground on the central coastal terrace between the northern rise of Bel-Air (650 meters north, site of the Catholic Cathedral) and the civic parkland of the Champ de Mars (500 meters southeast, backed by the green foothills of Morne l'Hopital).
In terms of urban street geometry and axial facing, the cathedral compound anchors the prominent corner intersection of two major historic thoroughfares: Rue Pavee, which runs west-southwest directly toward the waterfront of the Bay of Port-au-Prince, and Rue Monseigneur Guilloux, which runs north-northwest to south-southeast linking the two historic cathedrals of the capital with the national plaza of Champ de Mars. In traditional urban landform analysis, this corner crossroads configuration allows sea breezes from the Gulf of Gonave to flow up the corridor of Rue Pavee into the shaded school courtyards and liturgical spaces, nurturing a vibrant oasis of sacred art, education, and symphonic music in the heart of the city.
VTrinity Sunday, Bishop James Theodore Holly Day on March 13, and the Easter and Christmas Symphonic Concerts
Liturgical life at Holy Trinity Cathedral follows the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church and the French and Haitian Creole editions of the Book of Common Prayer (Livre de la Priere Commune), blending dignified Anglo-Catholic ceremonial with the celebrated orchestral and choral heritage of the Holy Trinity Music School.
| Time of Year | Calendar System | Liturgical Feast or Musical Tradition | Distinctive Rites and Observances at Holy Trinity Cathedral |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 12 | Gregorian | Annual Memorial Liturgy for the Victims of the 2010 Earthquake | Requiem Eucharist and orchestral tribute honoring the students, teachers, Sisters of St. Margaret, clergy, and worshippers who lost their lives on January 12, 2010. |
| March 13 | Gregorian (Feast Day on the Episcopal Calendar) | Feast of James Theodore Holly, First Bishop of Haiti (1829 to 1911) | Diocesan celebration across all parishes and Episcopal schools in Haiti, featuring a solemn Eucharist and wreath-laying at Bishop Holly's tomb on the cathedral grounds. |
| Holy Week and Easter Sunday (March or April) | Gregorian | Sacred Triduum, Easter Vigil, and the Grand Easter Symphonic Concert | The Holy Trinity Philharmonic Orchestra and Cathedral Choir perform sacred masterworks by European composers (Bach, Handel, Mozart) alongside works by Haitian composers such as Justin Elie, Ludovic Lamothe, and Werner Jaegerhuber. |
| First Sunday after Pentecost (May or June) | Gregorian (Cathedral Patronal Feast) | Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinity Sunday / Dimanche de la Sainte-Trinite) | Titular patronal feast of the Cathedral and its schools, gathering clergy and lay delegates from across the Diocese of Haiti for festive liturgy and choral processions. |
| December (Advent and Christmas) | Gregorian | Advent Lessons and Carols and Christmas Concert (Concert de Noel) | Anglican choral service of Nine Lessons and Carols sung in French and Haitian Creole by Les Petits Chanteurs and students of St. Vincent's School. |
Violins among the rubble and the enduring spirit of the Holy Trinity Philharmonic Orchestra. In the days immediately following the earthquake of January 12, 2010, images of young musicians from the Holy Trinity Music School gathering amid the fallen masonry beside Bishop Holly's tomb and the surviving transept murals to play Bach and Haitian sacred hymns on salvaged violins and cellos moved audiences around the world. Supported by international conservatory partnerships and the Episcopal Church, the Holy Trinity Philharmonic Orchestra and the cathedral's youth choirs have continued to rehearse, tour internationally, and anchor the liturgical life of Port-au-Prince, proving that the synthesis of faith, painting, and music planted here over a century and a half ago remains indestructible.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Corner of Rue Pavee and Rue Monseigneur Guilloux, Downtown Port-au-Prince, HT6110, Republic of Haiti
- Getting there
- Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is located at the corner of Rue Pavee and Rue Monseigneur Guilloux in downtown Port-au-Prince, Ouest Department (approximately 500 meters northwest of the Champ de Mars national plaza and 650 meters south of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption along Rue Monseigneur Guilloux). From Toussaint Louverture International Airport (PAP), visitors should travel by pre-arranged institutional or hotel vehicle via Boulevard Toussaint Louverture and Autoroute de Delmas or Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines into downtown Port-au-Prince (roughly 20 to 30 minutes depending on traffic).
- Coordinates
- 18.5432, -72.3389
The Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral complex at Rue Pavee and Rue Monseigneur Guilloux is an active religious and educational campus housing parish worship spaces, primary and secondary schools, and the Holy Trinity Music School. Visitors wishing to attend Sunday morning services, pay respects at the tomb of Bishop James Theodore Holly, or inquire about the conserved 1950 to 1951 murals and orchestra rehearsals should coordinate in advance with the office of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti (Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti) during daytime hours. Guests entering the compound must check in at the security gate, dress modestly, and request permission from school staff before photographing students or musical rehearsals.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Port-au-Prince
Master Ưng Khiêm welcomes the community to enrich this page: a photograph taken on site, a historical detail not yet noted, or a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
No community contribution yet. You could be the first.
?Quick Questions
Who founded Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, and what is his historical significance?
Holy Trinity Parish was founded in 1863 by Bishop James Theodore Holly (1829 to 1911), a freeborn African American priest who led 110 emigrants from New Haven, Connecticut, to Haiti in 1861. Consecrated Bishop of Haiti on November 8, 1874, he became the very first African American bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church; his tomb stands intact on the cathedral grounds.
Why was Holy Trinity Cathedral known worldwide as the Sistine Chapel of the Caribbean?
Between 1950 and 1951, Bishop Charles Alfred Voegeli and the directors of the Centre d'Art commissioned thirteen of Haiti's greatest Naive master painters, including Philome Obin, Castera Bazile, Rigaud Benoit, Wilson Bigaud, Prefete Duffaut, and Toussaint Auguste, to paint fourteen monumental biblical murals in egg tempera across the interior walls of the cathedral.
What made the 1950 to 1951 murals a breakthrough in Christian art?
Before 1950, church art in Haiti was imported from Europe and depicted biblical figures exclusively as white Europeans. In the Holy Trinity Cathedral murals, Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and the angels were portrayed for the first time in a major cathedral of the Americas as Black Haitians set within vibrant Haitian village and city landscapes.
Which murals survived the catastrophic earthquake of January 12, 2010?
While the collapse of the eastern apse destroyed the three altar murals (The Crucifixion, The Ascension, and The Nativity) along with Jasmin Joseph's terracotta choir screen, conservators from the Smithsonian Institution's Haiti Cultural Recovery Project and the World Monuments Fund successfully stabilized and detached three major transept murals: Castera Bazile's Baptism of Christ, Prefete Duffaut's Temptation of Christ and Procession of Jacmel, and the lower half of Wilson Bigaud's Marriage at Cana.
Why was the cathedral that collapsed in 2010 already the fifth church built on the site?
Between the founding of the parish in 1863 and the early twentieth century, four successive church buildings of Holy Trinity Parish were destroyed by major urban fires in Port-au-Prince in 1866, 1873, 1888, and 1908. The fifth cathedral was constructed under Bishop Harry Roberts Carson and consecrated in 1929.
What role does Holy Trinity Cathedral play in Haitian classical music and special education?
Supported since 1927 by the Episcopal Sisters of St. Margaret, the cathedral campus became the birthplace of St. Vincent's School for Handicapped Children (founded in 1945 as Haiti's first school for blind, deaf, and disabled youth) and the Holy Trinity Music School and Philharmonic Orchestra, the nation's premier conservatory for classical music and choral singing.