Churches and clergy in 1837

Father Bede Sumner OSB
Ordained in old Saint Mary's Cathedral
9th May 1836,
being the first priestly ordination in Australia.

In March of 1837, when Bishop Polding wrote the Lenten Pastoral to his Flock, quoted in our previous posts, the white settlement of Australia had taken place less  than 50 years previously.  In 1837, the British Government was still sending convicts to the Colony of New South Wales.  In 1837, the settlement of Melbourne and Adelaide had only taken place a year or two previously.  A settlement had existed in Perth for some years, but it might well have been on another planet.  White settlement in Australia was mainly confined to what we now know as NSW and Tasmania.  The indigenous peoples of Australia continued to live in and around white settlement, on land they had occupied for thousands of years.  Much of what we know now as urban Australia was bushland, undisturbed by European civilisation.

In March of 1837, there were but eight (8) priests actively serving on the Australia Mission; these are their names and where they were stationed :

Father John McENCROE, Chaplain at Sydney; arrived in Australia 1832

Father Henry GREGORY OSB, S' Mary's Seminary; ordained in Sydney 1837

Father Bede SUMNER OSB, Chaplain at Parramatta; ordained in Sydney 1836

Father John Joseph THERRY, Chaplain at Campbelltown; arrived in Australia 1820

Father James Vincent CORCORAN OP, Chaplain at Windsor; arrived in Australia 1835

Father Christopher Vincent DOWLING OP Chaplain at East Maitland; arrived in Australia 1831

Father Ambrose COTHAM OSB Chaplain at Hobarton; arrived in Australia 1835

Father James WATKINS Chaplain at Hobarton; arrived in Australia circa 1835

OTHER :

The Very Reverend William Bernard ULLATHORNE OSB Vicar-General (visiting Europe 1836-38)

Father Philip CONNOLY, arrived in Australia 1820; resident in Hobarton.


There were also a small number of ecclesiastical students at the Sydney seminary, some of whom in the few years following were ordained at Saint Mary's.

It might be noted from the above that what is now South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory did not have a resident Catholic priest; in some of these places, a Catholic priest had never visited.


CHURCHES

In 1837, although there were quite a number of temporary places of Catholic worship, there were only a handful of permanent churches in the settled areas of Australia, as follows :

Sydney : S' Mary's Cathedral (no longer in existence);

Sydney : S' Joseph's chapel (adjacent to the Cathedral, no longer in existence);

Parramatta : S' Patrick's Church (original church no longer in existence);

Campbelltown : S' John's Church (still existing, but no longer a church);

Maitland : S' Joseph's Church (East Maitland, no longer in existence);

Wollongong : a temporary church (subsequently replaced);

Windsor : Saint Matthew's church (in the process of being built);

Richmond TAS : Saint John's church (still existing and in use);

Hobart TAS : a temporary church (subsequently replaced);

AMDG.

Regulations and Dispensations for Lent 1837

Appended to Bishop Polding's Pastoral Letter - reproduced in our previous post - were these Regulations and Dispensations for Lent:

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be celebrated, and a lecture given each morning at half past eight - in general, also, Mass will be celebrated at half past seven.

Part of the Rosary with night prayers will be recited in St Joseph’s Chapel each evening at seven o’clock.

Each Wednesday evening, Benediction of the most Holy Sacrament will be given, and a lecture delivered in reference to the calumnious aspersions cast upon the Catholic religion, or explanatory of its tenets.

Each Friday prayers will be said, and a lecture given at seven o’clock in the evening.

The faithful are earnestly exhorted to attend the public devotions of the Church according to their circumstances, and if prevented, let each one if private or in his own family devote a space of time to prayer and pious reading.

The Easter indulgence commences on Passion Sunday, and continues till Whit Sunday inclusive; during this period all the faithful are required, if they have the opportunity, to confess their sins, and with the permission of their Pastor, to receive the most holy Communion.

The dispensations from the strict fast of Lent granted to all the faithful are the following :

Meat is allowed on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays till Palm Sunday inclusive; on the three last mentioned days at dinner only.

A small collation may be taken in the morning and evening. But at this collation, milk, butter and cheese, are not allowed. Eggs and cheese are allowed at dinner on all days, except on the Wednesday of Holy Week, and the Fridays of each week.

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be will you all - Amen.

+John Bede Polding
Bishop and Vicar Apostolic.

NOTES

These regulations are reproduced from the anthology The Eye of Faith.

Saint Joseph's Chapel seems to have been built in the year 1829 as an extension to a building which had been constructed some years earlier by Father John Joseph Therry to serve both as the residence for the Catholic Chaplain and as a Catholic schoolhouse.  Together, these buildings formed an " E " shape, as is shewn in the illustration above.  The buildings occupied that spot just north of the present Saint Mary's Cathedral Presbytery. The buildings were demolished in 1867 to allow for the construction of new Saint Mary's Cathedral.

This view of the Chapel, School and Priest's residence was painted in 1834 and is part of the collection of the National Library of Australia.  The artist took a certain licence in illustrating the buildings, but the form of Saint Joseph's - a two-storey colonial building - is accurate.  

Lenten Pastoral Letter 1837

The Pastoral Instruction for Lent 1837

Addressed to all the Faithful in New Holland and Van Diemen's Land

By the Right Reverend John Bede Polding DD Bishop and Vicar Apostolic

Now, therefore, saith the Lord, be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning.  From the Prophecy of Joel 2 : 12

When John the Baptist, in the exercise of his high commission, announced to the world the coming of its Redeemer, he preached the baptism of penance … The Church in like manner, at the commencement of this holy season, enjoins her pastors to entreat all under their charge to prepare their souls to celebrate the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and to bring themselves into the disposition most fitting the contemplation of these sorrowful mysteries, by a renunciation of sin, by a sincere conversion, by penitential exercises in atonement for past crime, and as a means to purify their affections from carnal pursuits.

¶
The world and its business usurp that place in our hearts which God alone should occupy; hence indifference to prayer, hence neglect of attendance at Mass, hence years follow each other in rapid succession, and the Sacraments are not received. This being the case, with bitter grief we view the fatal consequences in the prevalence of vice, which spreads like a desolate and cancer over this land. The sacred name of God is blasphemed worse than among the Gentiles; the holiness of an oath is trampled under foot; Sunday is no longer deemed that day consecrated to the Lord; children grow up in the habits of sin unchecked and unheeded; with a lamentable precocity (sic precociousness) - before their mental or corporeal power are developed - they emulate the bad example of their parents; the sanctity of marriage is deemed of no account. Drunkenness - the parent and progeny of misfortune and of crime - who shall recount the victims this monster daily sacrifices to hell? 

But the word of the Lord remaineth for ever. This gracious offer to pardon a sinful people is held out also to us. But the conditions on which that pardon is offered must be fulfilled. The first of those conditions is a change of heart … the second condition is a determination to avoid evil and to do good … The third condition of repentance, a disposition to atone for past sins, and to preserve our souls in good purposes by works of penance.

¶
And if Jesus vouchsafed to suffer for us and thus make a full atonement for our crimes, do not imagine that you are thereby exempted from the works of penance.

¶
From these principles it follows, Dearly Beloved, that each one who acknowledges himself to be a sinner, and professes to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, is bound to deny himself, to take up his cross after the example of his blessed Master. A life of labour, each according to his vocation, abounding in the exercises of penance and of all good works, is the life of the true follower of Jesus Christ.

¶
Whilst the Church hath exhorted her children to live at all times in the strict discipline of a Christian life, from the earliest period of her existence she has set apart a season of the year preparatory to her celebration of the mysteries of our Redemption, during which she has called upon the faithful to enter on a more severe course of penance, to live in deeper retirement, and to seek a more intimate union with God in exercises of devotion.

¶
Dearly Beloved, in no portion of the Christian Church ought the sacred time of Lent to be observed with greater strictness than in this (country) which the Lord has committed to our pastoral charge. Are there not very many who live in a systematic contempt of the ordinances of Religion, whom we have repeatedly exhorted to return to the practices of the Christian life, to throw off their habits of criminal indulgence and indolence? 

¶

Dearly Beloved, we will not speak to you in the language of recrimination and reproof; rather we will entreat you in all affectionate solicitude for your welfare, to take up the yoke of the Lord with a willing mind and cheerful heart, that you may experience its sweetness. He who has so long waited for you, compassionate and gracious, is even now ready to carry you back to the fold in the arms of His mercy. He will embrace you; you will weep over your past miseries, and He will weep with you; He will cloth you with the robe of repentance; He will welcome you to the banquet of His love; in your conversion heaven and earth will rejoice.

¶
O let not this our admonition be in vain! We trust in the Lord that denying all ungodly desires, you will at length know the time of your visitation, and study the things which are to your everlasting peace.

Excerpts from Bishop John Bede Polding's Pastoral Letter for 1837 as contained in the anthology The Eye of Faith.

AMDG.

NOTES

The Eye of Faith was printed by the Lowden Publishing Co., Kilmore Victoria in 1977.  The editors were Gregory Haines, Sister Mary Gregory Foster and Frank Brophy.  Special contribution to the volume were made by Professor Timothy Suttor and James Cardinal Freeman.

Archbishop Polding 1842

In 1842, during the visit to Rome when he was appointed Archbishop of Sydney, John Bede Polding was accorded the rare distinction by Pope Gregory XV, of being made a Bishop-Assistant at the Pontifical Throne and a Count of the Papal Court. As a bishop-assistant, Archbishop Polding was required to wear particular vesture whilst resident in Rome (but only whilst in Rome); regardless of the fact that he usually wore the black choir dress of Benedictine bishops, the vesture of members of the Papal Chapel was to be purple in colour.

During this particular visit to Rome, a pen-and-ink portrait of Archbishop Polding was prepared by a local artist Signor Fidanza and depicts him wearing the vesture of a prelate of the Papal Chapel.  This portrait depicts the Archbishop as young and optimistic in appearance and with a full head of hair!  At the time, he was 47 years of age.  The illustration accompanying this post is a digital enhancement of Fidanza's 1842 portrait.

The illustration includes a reproduction of Archbishop Polding's signature : + J.B. Polding Sydnein. being an abbreviation of the Latin Sydneyensis, indicating his office of Archbishop of Sydney.

NOTES:

1.  The shade of Roman Purple which is now familiar for the colour of the vesture of bishops is similar to the colour fuchsia. This colour, however, was only stipulated by the Holy See in 1930s as the particular shade of purple approved to be worn by bishops and other prelates. In centuries previous, various shades of the colour violaceus were worn by Catholic bishops, some being more blue in tone than red. All these varieties were considered acceptable. But the brighter purple or fuchsia now familiar to us was hardly known before the 20th century.  Archbishop Polding is shewn in this illustration in choir dress which is more violet in colour.

2.  This digital illustration was prepared by the Saint Bede Studio and is under its copyright. 

Sydney 1849

This lovely watercolour of the city of Sydney in 1849 was painted by the colonial artist George Edwards Peacock from Woolloomooloo approximately on the site of Macleay Street.

On the left, we find William Street running west towards Hyde Park.  To the left of the centre of the painting is depicted old Saint Mary's Cathedral, shewing its apse rather than principal facade.  Adjoining the northern transept of the Cathedral is the Chapel of Saint Felician, built for the private use of the Benedictine Community.  Further to the right of old Saint Mary's is found the building now known as the Chapter House, and beyond this, the campanile designed by AWN Pugin and built to house Sydney's first peel of bells.  Along the skyline can be made out the Hyde Park barracks, as well as those buildings running along Macquarie Street which comprise the Mint Building, the Sydney Hospital and Houses of Parliament.  The spire of Saint James' Anglican church can also be clearly seen.

Dense bush is illustrated in that area which is now the Domain and the Botanical Gardens.

An enlarged section of Peacock's painting is also included here, which demonstrates the detail in which the artist captured the city buildings.

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

AMDG.

NOTES

George Peacock's watercolour is in the Collection of the State Library of NSW.

Lent 2020 with Archbishop Polding

During the forthcoming Season of Lent, we will regularly be publishing extracts from the Lenten Letters of Archbishop Polding, which were written over the forty years of his ministry in Australia.

"Each time he [Archbishop Polding] wrote he tried to draw his audience closer to God, to encourage upright human conduct and to counter evil, sin and the false ideologies which challenged God’s presence in Australia.  His letters present a consistently based view of the state of religion and of private and public morals in Australia throughout the crucial years of the nineteenth century."

From The Eye of Faith, the collected pastoral letters of Archbishop Polding.

NOTES

The Eye of Faith was printed by the Lowden Publishing Co., Kilmore Victoria in 1977.  The editors were Gregory Haines, Sister Mary Gregory Foster and Frank Brophy.  Special contribution to the volume were made by Professor Timothy Suttor and James Cardinal Freeman.

The engraving of Archbishop Polding was published by the newspaper The Sydney Mail in the late 1860s, based on a contemporary photograph.  The engraving has been digitally enhanced by the Saint Bede Studio.

Hyde Park Sydney 1870

This photograph of 1870 was taken from the bell tower of Old Saint Mary's Cathedral, looking south along College Street, Sydney.

The great open expanse of Hyde Park dominates this photograph, planted here and there with trees.  The building on the left is the Sydney Museum.  In the distance - in the centre - is a group of buildings known as Lyons' Terraces, running along Liverpool Street, which had been completed in 1841 and were demolished early in the 20th century.

AMDG

NOTES

This photograph is in the Collection of the State Library of NSW.

Portrait of Archbishop Polding

This lovely portrait of Archbishop Polding is housed in Saint Mary's Cathedral Presbytery, Sydney.  It was painted by Sydney artist Paul Newton as a commission to coincide with the visit of Pope Benedict to Sydney for World Youth Day in 2008.

The portrait depicts the Archbishop vested in Pontifical Mass vestments and as he would have appeared in 1842, the year he was created Metropolitan Archbishop of Sydney.  The face of the Archbishop is based on a sketch of him made in Rome in 1842.  The vestments depicted in the portrait are a set made by The Saint Bede Studio from silk damask and ornamented with Puginesque braid.

In the preparation of this portrait, the artist consulted the Saint Bede Studio in order to depict the vesture of the Archbishop as accurately as possible.

The Archbishop is wearing a linen albe, ornamented with embroideries, and over this he wears the Episcopal dalmatic and the chasuble.  The white woollen pallium - distinctive of a Metropolitan Archbishop - is also depicted, together with the ornamented Episcopal gloves.

The mitre depicted is kept in the treasury of Saint Mary's Cathedral and was the property of Archbishop Polding's successor, +Roger Bede Vaughan OSB.  Archbishop Vaughan obtained this Gothic Revival mitre in England.  Archbishop Polding himself owned a few mitres in the Gothic Revival style - not dissimilar from the mitre depicted - which have, unfortunately, not survived.

Lastly, the crosier - or bishop's staff - is based on the crosier owned by the first Bishop of Hobarton (Tasmania), +Robert William Willson, which was designed for him by the famed luminary of the Gothic Revival AWN Pugin.

AMDG.

Saint Mary's Cathedral circa 1913

This wonderful colour-tinted postcard was produced circa 1913.  The photographer was looking down along Prince Albert Road towards Saint Mary's Cathedral.

No motor cars can be seen, but inside horse and cart and a tram trundling down the road.  In the right foreground is the famous statue of Queen Victoria, set in that place in 1888.

On the left can be seen the newly-completed structure of the NSW Registrar General's Office.  It was designed in a modified form of Victorian Gothic in order to harmonise with the adjacent Gothic Revival mass of Saint Mary's Cathedral.

At this time, the Cathedral was only half completed, having been built in stages from 1868 : chancel and sacristies; transepts; two bays of the nave and finally, the Crossing Tower.  These were all built exactly to the designs of the architect William Wardell.

To the right of the Cathedral is the historic remnant of old Saint Mary's Cathedral, in particular those extensions designed by AWN Pugin, which were being built throughout the 1850s and 1860s before the old church was gutted by fire in 1865.  This facade of the old building was preserved for 50 years, before being demolished to make way for the completion of the nave of the present Cathedral.

AMDG

Looking from the Other Direction : Sydney 1834

Saint Mary's Road, a watercolour of 1834.Image : National Library of Australia.

Standing on what is now Saint Mary's Road, an artist painted this watercolour in July 1834, looking towards what we know as the site of the ANZAC Memorial in the southern precinct of Hyde Park. It is the opposite view to that shewn in our previous post.

In the centre of this painting is Saint Mary's Catholic Chapel, whose exterior walls of light-coloured stone had only been completed in the previous year.  A year later, it would become the Cathedral Church of the newly-arrived Bishop Polding.  The proportions of Saint Mary's are not quite accurately portrayed in this painting : it was of a much more "squat" appearance.

Away on a hill in the distance is the same building - possibly a private residence or an inn - that was shewn in the foreground in our previous post of an 1837 painting by Robert Russell.

The focus of these paintings is a collection of buildings which were constructed in stages during the 1820s and included a temporary chapel, a schoolroom and the residence for the various pioneering priests.  In a further post, we will discuss these buildings in more detail.

AMDG

Woolloomooloo 1837

Looking north from Woolloomooloo towards the city of Sydney circa 1837.

This watercolour by the artist Robert Russell was painted around 1837 looking northward to what was part of Woolloomooloo and the city of Sydney.  We would identify the spot today as approximately the site of the ANZAC Memorial in the southern precinct of Hyde Park, looking north.

In the middle ground on the right is depicted the southern side of old Saint Mary's Cathedral.  The old Cathedral faced westward into the bare expanse of what became Hyde Park.  

Beyond old Saint Mary's is the red brick structure of the Convict Barracks (now known as The Hyde Park Barracks), where Bishop Polding, Father Therry and other pioneering Catholic priests frequently ministered to the confined inmates.

To the left is seen the graceful spire of Saint James' Anglican church, King Street.

AMDG

NOTES

This image is part of the collection of the National Library of Australia.