Robert Spence (bishop)

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The Most Reverend

Robert Spence
Archbishop of Adelaide
Adelaide, Australia
NationalityIrish, Australian
Alma materCollege of Corpo Santo, Lisbon

Robert William Spence (13 January 1860 – 5 November 1934)

Adelaide, Australia in 1898. In 1915, he became Archbishop
of Adelaide, a position he held until his death in 1934.

Early life

Robert Spence was born on 13 January 1860 in

professed in 1878, Spence moved to Lisbon, where he studied for the priesthood at College of Corpo Santo, Lisbon. He was ordained a priest on 23 December 1882, and two days later, at Bom Sucesso convent he celebrated the first Dominican high mass in Portugal since religious orders were suppressed there in 1833. Returning to Ireland in 1885, he served in Cork and Newry, and ran retreats throughout Ireland, earning a reputation as a zealous and forceful preacher. In 1892, he became prior of the Black Abbey priory in Kilkenny, a position he held for six years.[1]

In 1898, Spence travelled to

John O'Reily, and often accompanying him when the Archbishop travelled.[1][3]

Episcopacy

By the 1910s, Archbishop O'Reily was growing frail,

consecrated on 16 August of the same year, and when O'Reily died on 6 July 1915,[4] Spence became Archbishop.[1]

While Archbishop, Spence continued to wear the plain clothes of his Dominican order rather than the purple soutane of an archbishop.

ad limina visit to Rome in 1921, he travelled through the archdiocese to raise funds for the completion and transformation of St Francis Xavier's Cathedral, with the new building opened in 1926.[1]

While in Ireland in 1920, Spence gave a controversial speech in

Adelaide City Council adjourning as a sign of respect for the late Archbishop.[1]

On 8 March 1931, Spence dedicated the pulpit designed by Adelaide architect Herbert Jory for St Xavier's, erected as a memorial to Roman Catholic soldiers who had died in World War I and regarded as an important example of church furniture.[7][8]

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538. Archived
    from the original on 10 March 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
  2. ISBN 0-646-04777-9
    .
  3. ^ Press 1991, p 155.
  4. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538. Archived
    from the original on 6 March 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  5. ^ Press 1991, p 74.
  6. ^ Press 1991, p 89.
  7. ^ "Building Details: St Francis Xavier Cathedral". Architects of South Australia. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  8. ^ "Memorial pulpit". The News (Adelaide). Vol. XVI, no. 2, 383. 7 March 1931. p. 7 (Sports Edition). Retrieved 19 January 2021 – via National Library of Australia.

External links

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