John Bede Polding
John Bede Polding | |||||||||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||||||||
Born | 18 November 1794 | ||||||||||||||
Died | 16 March 1877 | (aged 82)||||||||||||||
Buried | St Mary's Cathedral | ||||||||||||||
Ordination history | |||||||||||||||
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John Bede Polding,
Early life
Polding was born in Liverpool, England on 18 November 1794.[1] His father was of Dutch descent and his mother came from the Brewer family, recusants since the sixteenth century. His family name was also spelled Poulden or Polten. His parents died and at age 8 he was placed in the care of his uncle, Father Bede Brewer, president-general of the English Benedictine Congregation.
Polding was first taught by the Benedictine nuns of the Convent of Our Lady of Consolation of Cambray, who as refugees from revolutionary France were located at
Experiences in Australia
In 1834 Polding was appointed bishop of Hierocaesarea in partibus infidelium and Vicar Apostolic of New Holland, Van Diemen's Land and the adjoining islands.[4] Polding and party arrived first in Hobart on 6 August 1835. Leaving a priest and a student there, he travelled on and arrived in Sydney on 13 September 1835. The authorities soon realised the good effect his influence was having, and arranged that, on the arrival of every ship-load of convicts all the Catholics should be placed at his disposal for some days, during which the bishop and his assistants saw each prisoner personally and did all they could for them before they were drafted off to their various destinations.[2] Polding travelled widely throughout Australia and was regarded as hard-working. He traveled to Europe in November 1840, appointing Francis Murphy to serve as vicar general of the diocese during his absence.
On 5 April 1842, Polding was appointed the first Bishop of Sydney and subsequently Archbishop on 22 April 1842.
Despite his many successes as a founding bishop, Polding experienced a degree of resistance from his largely Irish Catholic church in Australia. Even after the English
In 1843 Polding established a
He helped establish St John's College, University of Sydney and Mary's College, Lyndhurst.[7] Polding travelled again to Rome in 1846 hoping to obtain a coadjutor bishop and Benedictine nuns to help in his diocese. He was successful in these quests and also gained approval for the establishment of Melbourne as a separate see. With his support, the Religious Sisters of Charity began the House of the Good Shepherd. In 1857 Polding established the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, an Australian congregation of Religious women.[10]
In January 1874, he retired to Sacred Heart Presbytery, Darlinghurst.[1]
Archbishop Bede Polding, O.S.B., died on 16 March 1877 in Sydney, aged 82, and was initially buried in Petersham Cemetery.[11] He was later reinterred St Mary's Cathedral.[12]
Legacy
Apart from the many churches he founded, Polding began the construction of the second St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney in 1868, where he was later re-buried. Polding also founded the Sisters of the Good Samaritan in Sydney.[13]
Bede Polding College, South Windsor, in the state of New South Wales, Australia is named after him, and students follow his morals and values each day.[14]
Polding Street in Fairfield, New South Wales is also named after him.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b "John Bede Polding". Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
- ^ a b Huddleston, Gilbert. "John Bede Polding". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.
- ^ Lennon, Troy (14 April 2017). "Australia's first Catholic Archbishop Bede Polding won independence for convict colony Catholics". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538.
- ^ "BISHOP POULDING". The Austral-asiatic Review, Tasmanian And Australian Advertiser. Tasmania, Australia. 30 September 1842. p. 3 – via Trove.
- Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier. New South Wales, Australia. 31 March 1877. p. 10 – via Trove.
- ^ a b c Tout-Smith, D. (2003) "John Bede Polding, Archbishop (1794-1877)" in Museums Victoria Collections
- S2CID 165698276.
Submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy to the School of Humanities, Arts, Education and Law Group, December, 2010
- ^ J. Franklin, Catholic missions to Aboriginal Australia: an evaluation of their overall effect Archived 1 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society 37 (1) (2016), 45-68; O. Thorpe, First Catholic Mission to the Australian Aborigines (Pellegrini, Sydney, 1950); R. Ganter, The Stradbroke Island Mission (1843-1847) Archived 20 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St. Benedict". Archived from the original on 18 February 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
- Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier. Vol. XIII, no. 17. New South Wales, Australia. 31 March 1877. p. 1 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 19, 660. New South Wales, Australia. 16 March 1901. p. 18 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Archbishop John Bede Polding", Sisters of the Good Samaritan
- ^ Bede Polding College Sth Windsor
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "John Bede Polding". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Sources
- Bede Nairn, 'Polding, John Bede (1794–1877)', MUP, 1967, pp 340–347.
- Serle, Percival (1949). "Polding, John Bede". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.