This book is a tribute to the man who is depicted on the left page, above the church, Pastor Vincente Jansen. At the end of the 19th century he had a large church built in the village of Mondi Afó (Buitenbosch in Dutch). At the inauguration of the imposing Saint Willibrord’s Church in 1888, the name of Mondi Afó was changed to Sint Willibrordus.

The church was designed in the neo-Gothic style that was very popular in the Netherlands at the time. Only the colors give the church a somewhat Curaçaoan look. For Pastor Jansen and many other Catholic clergy in Curaçao, sincere care for the parishioners often went hand in hand with a sense of European superiority.

Nowhere in Curaçao has Catholic missionary work left its mark on the community as clearly as in the village that is now called St. Willibrordus.