ST. AGATHA – Armand Gagnon walked proudly down the aisle of the St. Agatha Roman Catholic Church carrying water and wine for the offertory of the Mass of Thanksgiving at the reopening of the church that was the site of a disastrous fire on April 10.

The St. Agatha Church, on Route 162 in the center of the community, is a landmark in the town of 800 people. The large brick building, with a huge bell spire, oversees Long Lake, and is a part of the skyline for miles around.

Gagnon, 70, saved the church from destruction. It was Gagnon who noticed the fire at 5:15 a.m. that day as he was taking his morning walk. He smelled smoke, opened the door of the church and saw a red glow in the smoky billows. Firefighters were summoned from St. Agatha and Frenchville and contained the fire quickly, saving the building from total destruction.

Gagnon remembers the church’s first fire, 60 years ago when he was 10. He is a reserved man whose face flushed red as he walked down the aisle among the more than 300 gathered for the event. When he returned to his seat, his two young granddaughters clapped for him. He smiled at them and turned toward the altar and the Mass.

On Sunday afternoon, Bishop Joseph Gerry led a contingent of 17 priests in a bilingual Mass in the completely refurbished church. “We are here to thank God for preserving this beautiful church from total destruction,” Gerry said. “Today, I join you in your joy. You parishioners of St. Agatha realized your call in service to others. God dwells among you, and you have done a wonderful job.”

Gerry recounted the history of the parish from the first priest celebrating Mass in private homes, to the original church, built in 1890, then destroyed by fire Aug. 13, 1940, and rebuilt a year after that.

The Rev. Claude Gendreau, pastor of the church last April, beamed with pride at the restoration work. “Isn’t it great what they have done?” he said. “You have done a wonderful job,” he added, waving his hand around the people for emphasis.

The Rev. Michael Doucette, new pastor at St. Agatha, thanked the volunteers for rebuilding the church. “I must name two people personally who have given vision and supervision in this endeavor,” he said. “Father Claude [Gendreau] for his vision, and Philip Michaud, for his supervisory skills in making this happen.”

There was no question in Gendreau’s mind on April 11 that the church for more than 400 families would be repaired. “We shall rise again,” Gendreau said the day after the fire.

A self-insurance diocesan program would not cover all the damage – there was between $200,000 and $300,000 in damage, including a rear balcony and a side wall and a stained-glass window above the church entrance that was broken in the firefighting effort. But a month later, a restoration and renovation committee began to raise $100,000 and, as of just recently, had exceeded its goal by more than $12,000.

Even before the fund-raising effort was launched, donations were coming in from all over the St. John Valley, elsewhere in Maine, and from across the country, even from several Canadian provinces.

“It’s nice to see it rebuilt, and I will attend services this afternoon,” Gagnon said Sunday morning. “I still feel bad about the fire, because it’s something I don’t ever want to see again.”

The present church, built for 1,050 people, was designed by Ed Graham of Boston. The first high Mass there was celebrated on Aug. 10, 1941, by Bishop Joseph E. McCarthy.