In 2008, parishioners celebrated the 125th anniversary of St. Bernard’s. This was indeed a milestone since there were no Catholics among the first to settle in what was to become the City of Moncton after the deportation of the Acadians.

A first church had been built by the Acadians near the site of the actual Bore Park called La Chapelle. The whole area surrounding this chapel was burnt by the ravages of Scott at the time of the deportation of 1755-1763.

Thomas Corcoran, an Irishman who arrived in 1810, was perhaps the first Catholic to settle in the Moncton area. In 1851, Father F.X. LaFrance of Memramcook purchased a lot of land for the construction of a church. However, it took more than 20 years before a first church was constructed and dedicated to St. Bernard.

This parish was the first stone building in the city. The city’s first convent was opened on Wesley Street in 1886; the first parochial school in 1891; and many parish societies and organizations came into existence such as the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Women’s League and the League of the Sacred Heart.

The St. Bernard's parish was also the centre of Catholic education in the city with the arrival of the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception in 1886.