The Call of Fr. Elveau Augustine

by Welsh Richards

Visiting and interacting with Father for a few moments, one is struck by the enormity of the task which confronts him. One is forced to concede, as it is said in local parlance, “His work is cut out for him.” He is the lone priest charged with the responsibility of shepherding five communities, scattered across the eastern seaboard of Dominica and stretching from Atkinson in the north-east to Petite Soufriere in the south-east, to include Carib Territory, Castle Bruce and San Sauveur.

Fr. Elveau has served in quite a few other parishes in Dominica – Grandbay, where he was first assigned, the Cathedral, where to date he has had his longest stint, Goodwill, Salisbury and now Castle Bruce, Parish of the Lady of Health, which has been his most challenging, yet most exciting. Challenging, because of the vastness of the physical terrain he has to cover; exciting because of the differing backgrounds of his parishoners and the novelty of working together with the indigenous people of Dominica.

But Fr. Elveau is up to the task. He has this rugged look about him which suggests that his duties are not all sedentary. In fact they cannot be, if he is to do justice to his many parishioners who reside in the various hamlets which shape and give character to the Parish of the Lady of Health. To promote and ensure his physical well being he swims, plays football, or any other sport his limited time allows, and jogs.

Fr. Elveau has established committees in each of the communities to assist in the effort of building Church and sharing in the vision of the parish, and this has been working well. He celebrates three Masses on any given Sunday, as he travels from one community to the next, invariably returning late evening to Castle Bruce, where he officially resides. His week days, with the exception of Mondays, are devoted to visiting each of the communities, as he establishes a continual presence among the people of God, saying Mass, giving encouragement to the sick, and dialoguing with them, to learn of their concerns and to determine the best way to address those concerns. He has witnessed the people of the parish grow in faith and confidence, and this exhilarates him.

With all the rigors of his work, Fr. Elveau still finds time for one of his favourite pastimes, composing songs of Praise and Worship to God, many of which are sung in our churches.

Fr. Elveau’s journey to the priesthood is not one on which a timeline can be readily placed. It was sudden and unexpected. Indeed, Elveau, as a young boy, never thought of becoming a priest. He was rather caught up in the daily vagaries of trying to live a normal life in a single parent home, where he grew up with his three siblings and his mother. Somewhere during that period and beyond, he had flashes of becoming a scientist, an astronaut at that. His mother was the sole breadwinner of the family. She hailed from Vieille Case, his father from La Plaine and Elveau was born and grew up in Portsmouth, in very modest circumstances.

Elveau attended the St John’s Primary School and later the Portsmouth Secondary school. He subsequently took up a job as a teacher at St. John’s and eventually was the sole source of income for his family.

As would have been expected, his mother’s faith and fortitude inevitably impacted Elveau’s early childhood. And he grew up steeped in the Catholic faith, a frequent attendee at Mass and a participant in the yearly Catholic Charismatic Renewal Conference. However, it was while he was listening to the sermon of the priest one Holy Thursday, lamenting the fact that the expatriate priests were getting old and the young men of Dominica were not responding to God’s call to fill the void, to satisfy a developing Church, it suddenly hit home. He was going to become a priest! He was overcome with emotion and literally cried. He has never looked back.

Telling his mother of his decision was no easy task, but his mother, ever faithful and devoted to God, took it in stride. “Elveau”, she said, “you are the breadwinner of the family, but if the Lord has called you, who am I to stand in His way. Surely He will provide”. His mother gave her blessings to the idea and in September of that same year, 1982, Elveau left for the Seminary in Trinidad. He later left for advanced studies in Rome but Fr Elveau would not allow me to focus on his educational accomplishments.

Fr Elveau has been a priest for 21 years and he will not trade it for anything else. He is truly blessed.