Bishop Vincent Darius, OP, the Bishop of the Diocese of St. Georges in Grenada passed on to eternal glory on the 25th of April 2016. He was a native of Crochu, St Andrews in Grenada and a son of the Province of England.
Bishop Vincent was born in 1955 at Crochu, the place where he received his initial education. He taught briefly at Pomme Rose R.C School before entering the Order in 1978 at Mt. St. Ervans, Grenada. He had his Novitiate formation in 1979 at Holy Cross Priory, Trinidad. His studies for the priesthood were done at the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs, Trinidad and the Universidad Central de Bayamon, Puerto Rico. He also did a Graduate Certificate Course in Spiritual Direction at the Aquinas Institute of Theology at St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1987 in his childhood parish of St. Martin de Porres, Crochu.
A year after his ordination, he was elected Prior of the Dominican House of Formation in Puerto Rico. On returning from Puerto Rico, he was appointed Parish Priest of St. Paul’s and a year later Parish Priest of Grand Anse. In 1989 he was appointed as Promoter of Justice and Peace for the Caribbean and served for a period of six years. He was elected the first Prior of the newly established Priory at Roxborough, St. Paul’s and served for two terms.
In the Diocese of St Georges, Bishop Darius held many positions including that of Diocesan Consultor and member of the Priests’ Council. In 2002 the Antilles Episcopal Conference appointed him to the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and Uganda Martyrs as Spiritual Director. That same year, he was appointed the fourth Bishop of St Georges and was ordained to the episcopate a few months later.
In 2003 Bishop Darius received an Honorary Doctorate, in Humanities and the ex-Alumni Association award for outstanding achievement from the Universidad Central de Bayamon in Puerto Rico. Bishop Darius also received the 2003 ex-Alumni Association award for outstanding achievement.
Bishop Darius has the distinguished honour of being the first Grenadian Bishop and the second Dominican to be made Bishop of the Diocese. The other was the late Bishop Justin Fields, OP. Presently there is one other Dominican Bishop in the Caribbean, Archbishop Robert Rivas, OP, Archbishop of Castries, St. Lucia, West Indies.
May he rest in peace!
(29 April 2016)