28 February, 2019

Our Lady Help of Christians

A 20th century Australian hymn to Our Lady, Help of Christians


Statue of Our Lady Help of Christians
Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney.
Help of Christians, guard this land
From assault or inward stain;
Let it be what Christ has planned
His new Eden, where you reign.

Teach us that in Christ your Son
Lies the wisdom to be free;
For the Cross, which we would shun,
Is man's Tree of Liberty.

Should the powers of hell arise,
And our peace be trampled down,
In that night of blood and lies
Show us still your twelve-starred crown.

Take from us the coward heart,
Fleeting will, divided mind,
Give us sight to play our part,
Through the world around is blind.

Image of the risen life
Shining in eternity,
Glimmer through our earthly strife,
Draw us to your victory.

By Professor James MacAuley 
with music by Richard Connolly.

26 February, 2019

Saint Mary's Cathedral : The Polding Window

Archbishop Polding as a mediaeval bishop
A stained glass window in Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney :

Image : Giovanni Portelli.
On the eastern side of Saint Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, and running alongside the chancel is an enclosed area known as The Chapel of the Irish Saints.

Between 1901 and 1946, in a vault beneath the floor of that chapel, rested the remains of several of our pioneering clergy :  Father John Joseph Therry (died 1864); Father Daniel Power (died 1830); Archdeacon John McEncroe (died 1868) and Archbishop John Bede Polding OSB (died 1877).  When these pioneer died, they were buried in various cemeteries around Sydney which have long since ceased to exist.  In 1911, Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran was also laid to rest in this vault.

After the Cathedral was enlarged in the period ending 1928, a large crypt was excavated beneath the floor of the nave.  In 1946, the bishops and clergy at rest in the Chapel of the Irish Saints were placed together in a vault at the northern end of the new crypt. Two other bishops were buried with them at that time : Archbishop Roger Bede Vaughan OSB (who died in 1883 and hitherto had been buried in England) and Bishop Charles Henry Davis OSB (who died in 1854 and hitherto had been buried at the Benedictine Convent, Subiaco, near Parramatta).

In the first decade of the twentieth century a new window of stained glass was made by the renowned English firm of Hardman and was installed in the Cathedral in the wall of the Chapel of the Irish Saints.  It is known as The Polding Window. The central depiction of this beautiful window is Pope Saint Gregory the Great sending the monk Augustine to convert the English to Christianity. The designer of the window obviously perceived this as a type of the founding of the Church in Australia.

Several pioneering bishops are depicted in this window, but the most prominent are three Benedictines in glazed roundels along the lower border of the window.  These are Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne OSB, Archbishop Polding and Bishop Charles Henry Davis OSB.  These windows are rendered in the high-style of the Gothic Revival.  The bishops are depicted in mediaeval vestments (including amice apparels) and small, jewel-ornamented mitres.  In the case of Archbishop Polding, he is wearing an oversized pallium and holding a Metropolitan Cross, the symbols of his status as a Metropolitan Archbishop of Sydney.

Never intended to be viewed at close range, these beautiful windows nevertheless are finely-detailed and are good (though stylised) likenesses of the three bishops. It is most likely that the facial details were made from photographs or engravings.

The beautiful photographs which accompany this post were made available to us by Sydney Archdiocesan photographer Giovanni Portelli and are under his copyright.


Click on the image for an enlarged view.

(left to right)
Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne OSB
Archbishop John Bede Polding OSB
Bishop Charles Henry Davis OSB


A section of the Polding Window in Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney.


Image : Giovanni Portelli.





AMDG



18 February, 2019

Archbishop Polding : Coat of Arms

This is the coat-of-arms of Archbishop John Bede Polding O.S.B.  

His motto, Adjutor Deus, appears in various ways in the psalms, but perhaps is adapted from the ninth verse of Psalm 62 : 

Deus adjutor noster in aeternum

" God is our helper in every age. "


14 February, 2019

Archbishop Polding Commemorative Card

The Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev'd Anthony Fisher O.P., has approved the publication of a card commemorating the life of his predecessor, ARCHBISHOP JOHN BEDE POLDING O.S.B. (1794-1877).  The Archbishop indicated that he wished to see devotion to Archbishop Polding spread throughout the Archdiocese, Australia and beyond.

Part of the commemorative card is shewn in the adjacent image.  Artwork for the card was carried out by The Saint Bede Studio.

The commemorative card will be printed over the next few weeks to coincide with the Archbishop Polding Pilgrimage (Saturday 16th March), and its availability will be made known on this Blog and on The Guild of Archbishop Polding facebook page.

AMDG.


13 February, 2019

John O'Brien on Archbishop Polding

Here are a few lines by John O'Brien (Monsignor Patrick Hartigan) in appreciation of Archbishop Polding:

Archbishop JB Polding OSB
A photograph of the 1860s.
Australia was fortunate in its first bishop.  What settlement there was at the time of his arrival [1835] was scattered over hundreds of miles - from Moreton Bay to Melbourne, with a something around Adelaide and something at the Swan River [Perth].  In his own words "Little could be done except to keep from entire decay so much of the form and spirit of religion as had been preserved by our zealous predecessors."  There were few churches and the call was for a journeyman-shepherd who would follow the straying sheep across a continent.  None could have done this better than he.  Blessed with health and great powers of physical endurance, before roads were formed or bridges built, he went in his heyday on horseback by bridle track or guess, from Sydney to Wollongong, Goulburn, Albury, Maitland, Singleton, Armidale, Bathurst, Deniliquin to Melbourne, to Brisbane, wherever there was anyone - be it settler or shepherd, ticket-of-leave man or convict - in need of pastoral care.  He accepted with gratitude whatever they had to offer by way of hospitality, the shake-down on the floor, and the rough fare "some damper and a bite of beef, a pannikin of tea." ...

At the same time, he was administering the most unwieldly diocese in the world, and doing well in trying circumstances, but it was as a Missionary that he came to Australia, and a Missionary he remained.  In that sphere he has been styled the greatest of modern times.  As a Missionary he walks among the Immortals.

On Darlinghurst Hill, Sydney, 1952, pp 70-71.