A new underground Mass under the streets of Vancouver

Giving a new definition to the phrase “underground Mass,” Father Juan Lucca of St. Francis of Assisi Parish recently celebrated Mass with the work crew of an under-construction SkyTrain tunnel. 

The request for the Mass and blessing came from the work crew at one of the tunnels associated with the extension of the SkyTrain’s service down the Broadway corridor. Father Lucca was told the underground workers celebrate the feast of St. Barbara, the patroness of miners and tunnellers, every year on Dec. 4. 

One of the companies involved in the tunnel project, Ghella, operates in Italy, and Father Lucca was asked to celebrate the Mass because of his associations with Vancouver’s Italian community through St. Francis of Assisi Parish. He also speaks the two most common languages on the work site, Spanish and Italian. 

The work crew had set up an altar in the tunnel, and during the entrance procession, a statue of St. Barbara was brought forward. The Mass was celebrated in English, Italian, and Spanish. 

Father Lucca told The B.C. Catholic that he was struck by the simple piety of the workers who all attended Mass wearing their work gear and safety equipment. 

The tunnellers’ response was joyful and uplifting, he said. “They were delighted to continue the tradition.”  

St. Barbara is the patron saint of miners and tunnellers. The saint’s origins are difficult to ascertain, but in some stories, her pagan father is killed by lightning after he murders her for converting to Christianity. 

Through the centuries, popular piety connected Barbara first to lightning and then to anyone who worked with explosives and risked a quick death. The tradition led to artillery workers, miners, and tunnellers asking for her intercession for their safety. 

At each entrance to the Broadway tunnel, a small shrine to St. Barbara has been placed to ask for her intercession in keeping the work site safe.

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