Patroness of the Canada Line keeping tunnel workers safe

By Cleveland Stordy

The construction workers responsible for the tunnelling of Vancouver's 19-kilometre-long Canada Line project are bringing an uncommonly spiritual aspect to their job.

Cleveland Stordy Safety manager Lary Campanas in front of a shrine to St. Barbara, patron saint of miners and engineers, 14 metres below street level along Vancouver's Canada Line construction project.

Fourteen meters below the streets of Vancouver, just out of the public's view, is a small shrine where Catholic construction workers and mining engineers are retaining their historic religious traditions.

Connected to the base of a scaffolding staircase at the main access point to the tunnels is the shrine dedicated to St. Barbara, the patron saint of miners, engineers, and now, Canada Line workers.

The shrine is at the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge near Second Avenue, at what will eventually become the Olympic Village Station.

There workers can seek the guidance and protection of St. Barbara, whose image stands in the centre of a white wooden box shrine surrounded by pastel-coloured plastic flowers and grape vine, and illuminated by a small light in the place where a candle was once lit.

Amid the rubble of a massive construction site might be the last place one would expect to encounter a Catholic liturgy, but in fact that's precisely what took place, not once but twice.

On the mornings of Dec. 4 the past two years, near the

Future station site of Mass

entrance to the mammoth tunnel, work on the Canada project came to a grinding halt. The sound produced by the grinding teeth of the colossal tunnel-boring machine and the cacophony of noise associated with construction sites was silenced, to be replaced by the peace and presence of the Mass in honour of St. Barbara.

Father Louis Piran, CS, pastor of St. Helen's Parish in Burnaby, was recruited by the Italian company to say Mass in Italian, Spanish, and English.

The subterranean Masses were celebrated within the labyrinth of train tunnels beneath the city of Vancouver. "We set up an altar in the tunnel, where a full Mass was conducted with a prayer to Santa Barbara," Father Luigi said.

"The Italian company hires many people from South America; they are very proud of accomplishing the job with no accidents, and they attribute that to Santa Barbara," he said.

"All the employees and their families took the day off to participate in this holy day of celebration," said Lary Campanas, safety manager of SLCP-SELI, the company responsible for construction of the Canada Line.

Campanas, who speaks in a thick Greek accent, said, "It's a European and South American tradition that every year on Dec. 4 workers celebrate Santa Barbara Day." The celebration normally ends with a big dinner, and so, appropriately, last year workers gathered at Marcello Pizzeria on Commercial Drive.

If St. Barbara is invoked for her protection of workers, she's certainly doing a good job in Vancouver. The company has worked more than 900 consecutive accident-free days, said Campanas. "The provincial government has awarded a Provincial Safety Award to the company."

St. Barbara lived during the 3rd century AD and was the daughter of a heathen named Dioscorus.

Upon learning of Jesus Christ she recognized the absurdity of polytheism and became a self-proclaimed Christian. After being mocked and tortured publicly she was sentenced to death.

Her own father carried out the death sentence but soon after was struck by a blast of lighting and consumed by flames. Because of the nature of his death, St. Barbara became known as the protector of men and women whose work involves risk from fire or explosion, including miners.

"St. Barbara works to protect all those who work underground," Campanas said.