Church in Australia

By Tortoise

  • Indigenous People

    Before the European settlement there was the Indigenous People, They were not catholic as some people, They believed in the dream time.

  • Irish Convicts

    Only 12% of the convicts transported to Australia were Irish. Yet people often automatically associate the Irish with transportation. Use these resources and surprising pathways to explore Irish convict history.
    About half a million Irish people are believed to have left their homes between 1788 and 1921 to begin the long sea passage to Australia. Today, Australia is the most Irish country in the world outside Ireland.

  • James Dixon

    James Dixon was famous for holding the first public mass.
    James Dixon (1758-1840), Roman Catholic priest, was born at Castlebridge, County Wexford, Ireland, into a family in comfortable circumstances. He was educated by a neighbouring parish priest and later at Salamanca and Louvain, where he completed his course in 1784 and became curate at Crossabeg parish, near Wexford.
    Birth 1758 Castlebridge, Wexford, Ireland
    Death 4 January 1814 Ireland

  • Father Jeremiah O'Flynn

    In 1817, Jeremiah O'Flynn was granted official authority to preach catholic mass to the convicts.

  • Father John Therry

    In 1815 Father John Therry was ordained Priest
    In 1820 Philip Connolly and John Therry were the first Australian Priests.
    In 1820 Father John Therry makes the first Catholic School in Australia.

  • Philip Conolly

    Fr John Therry and Fr Philip Conolly, Australia's first official priests, arrive in Sydney. Fr Therry opens the first Catholic school in Parramatta and lobbies Governor Macquarie for land on which to build the settlement's first Catholic church.

  • Archbishop John Bede Polding

    John Bede Polding John Bede Polding, was the first Roman Catholic Bishop and then Archbishop of Sydney, Australia.
    Born: 18 October 1794, Liverpool, United Kingdom
    Died: 16 March 1877, Sydney
    Place of burial: Australia
    Books: The Letters of John Bede Polding OSB.: 1861-1877
    Organizations founded: Sisters of the Good Samaritan, St John's College, University of Sydney

  • Caroline Chisholm

    Caroline Chisholm She was mostly known for Humanitarian work, immigration reform, assisting the local Aboriginal communities Caroline Chisholm was a progressive 19th-century English humanitarian known mostly for her involvement with female immigrant welfare in Australia. She is commemorated on 16 May in the Calendar of saints of the Church of England.
    Born: 30 May 1808, Northampton, United Kingdom
    Died: 25 March 1877, Highgate, London, United Kingdom

  • Sisters of Charity

    Five Sisters of Charity arrive in Sydney with a mission to help the poor and disadvantaged in response to a request from Archbishop Polding for a community of sisters in the colony. English-born philanthropist Caroline Chisholm also arrives in Sydney as does a large contingent of secular Irish clergy including Fr John Brady who is appointed to Windsor with a parish that extends from Penrith to the Hawkesbury and Broken Bay.

  • Christian Brothers

    Christian Brothers of Ireland. The Congregation of Christian Brothers is a Roman Catholic lay congregation founded in Waterford, Ireland in 1802 for the purpose of educating poor Catholic boys in the area. Its founder was Edmund Ignatius Rice, a wealthy local businessman.

  • Bishop Robert Wilson

    Robert William Willson was an English Roman Catholic bishop, the first Bishop of Hobart, and an advocate for the convicts in Australia.

  • Sisters of the Good Samaritan

    Sisters of the Good Samaritan. Thee Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Saman, colloquially known as the "Good Sams", is a Roman Catholic congregation of religious women commenced by Bede Polding, Australia's first Catholic bishop, in Sydney in 1857.

  • Mary MacKillop

    Mary MacKillop Mary MacKillop was known for being Australia's first saint. Mary Helen MacKillop was an Australian nun who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, as St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Of Scottish descent, she was born in Melbourne but is best known for her activities in South Australia. She was also Australia's first Saint
    Born: 15 January 1842, Fitzroy Melbourne
    Died: 8 August 1909, North Sydney

  • Marist Brothers

    Marist Brothers Australia. The Marist Brothers is a Religious community of the Catholic Church founded by a French Priest, St Marcellin Champagnat, in 1817. Members of the group to follow Christ as Mary did, through the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

  • Sisters of Saint Joseph

    The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, often called the "Josephites" or "Brown Joeys", were founded in Penola, South Australia, in 1866 by Mary MacKillop and the Rev. Julian Tenison Woods.