ST MARY'S CATHEDRAL
Cnr of College Street & Cathedral Street
The dramatic beginnings of Roman Catholicism in Australia lie on Church Hill. Where St Patrick’s college stands, next to the old church of the same name, was the cottage of ex-convict William Davis, Irish rebel. For about 18 months in 1818 and 1819, he secretly sheltered the sacrament consecrated by a priest deported from New South Wales for saying mass without permission.
There had been Roman Catholics in New South Wales from the time of the First Fleet, but their religion was proscribed. They were obliged, on penalty of flogging for absenteeism, to attend Protestant services. The sacrament on Church Hill kept hope alive at a time when the feeling of persecution was intense.
Macquarie had deported the unauthorised Father Jeremiah Flynn as he feared that designing artful priest might stir up a spirit of resentment among the Irish in the colony.
But it was Macquarie who, three years later, magnanimously laid the foundation stone of St Mary’s Chapel, the first Roman Catholic church in Australia.
This was on the side where the great basilica now stands, opposite Hyde Park. Macquarie, a mason of many years’ standing, made a neat joke about the fact that he had trowelled the stone into place.
St Mary’s became a cathedral after the first bishop, Dr Polding, arrived in 1835.
The enlarged Gothic building burnt down in
1865, and the temporary wooden church was also destroyed by fire.
Another pro-cathedral was built and was used until the first part of William Wardell’s great Geometric Decorated Gothic cathedral could be opened in 1882.
Work went on until 1928, but it was left unfinished, without the spires that were planned for it.
The first St Mary's church was a much smaller building than the one we know today. The first Mass was held in its simple stone structure in 1833.
In the years that followed, a bell tower, offices, a cloister & a library were added.
The church was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1865. Plans for the construction of a new, larger cathedral were immediately put into place.
Architect William Wardell, a man with a reputation for building in the Gothic Revival style, designed the new building.
Archbishop Polding had given William Wardell a completely free hand on the design. "Any plan, any style, anything that is beautiful & grand, to the extent of our power," the Archbishop wrote to the architect.
The cathedral's nave was completed in 1928, which ended the construction period, which had taken 60 years & cost 700,000 pounds.
Yet for almost another 75 years, St Mary's Cathedral remained in many people's minds unfinished. Two squared-off towers, rather than Wardell's original plans for spires, framed the building.
With the assistance of a grant from the NSW Government, the spires were built in 2000.
The bells of St Mary's Cathedral survived the June 1865 fire, along with the Pugin façade, the bell tower and part of the north-east transept. Cast at the Whitechapel Foundry in London, they were traded in for a new ring of eight bells, which were installed in 1882.
Three popes have visited St Mary's Cathedral, including Pope Paul VI in 1970, Pope John Paul II in 1986 & 1995, & Pope Benedict XVI, as part of the World Youth Day celebrations held in Sydney in 2008.
A House of God for Old Sydney Town - Catholic Weekly
More of the Story
I wrote the bit above back in 2015, and every time I walk past St Mary's on College Street I'm reminded there's a lot more to it. So I've gone back to the books, the old newspapers and the cathedral's own history pages and filled in the story from the hidden sacrament on Church Hill right through to the spires that finally went up in 2000. Where the sources don't agree, I've said so further down.
Father O'Flynn and the Hidden Sacrament
Jeremiah Francis O'Flynn was an Irish priest, born in County Kerry on Christmas Day 1788. In 1817 he asked the Colonial Office for permission to go out to New South Wales as a priest for the Irish convicts. Lord Bathurst said no, giving as his reasons O'Flynn's education and his poor English, according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography. O'Flynn came anyway. The Dictionary of Sydney has him arriving in Sydney on 9 November 1817.
Macquarie refused him permission to stay, but O'Flynn talked the Governor into letting him remain until word came from London. In the meantime he got on with being a priest, saying Mass in private homes. St Patrick's Church Hill names two of them: William Davis's cottage near the corner of Grosvenor and Harrington Streets, and the house of James Dempsey in Kent Street. Both men were Irish convicts from the 1798 troubles. No papers ever came, and in May 1818 Macquarie had O'Flynn arrested. He sailed on 20 May 1818.
Before he was taken, O'Flynn left the consecrated host in a pyx. For about 18 months a little group of Sydney Catholics kept a daily vigil in front of it. Then in November 1819 the Catholic chaplain of a visiting French naval ship said Mass in Sydney and most probably took the sacrament away. Whether it was kept at Davis's place, at Dempsey's, or at both is still argued about. St Patrick's Church now stands on the Davis land on Church Hill.
Fathers Therry and Conolly, 1820
O'Flynn's deportation stirred things up back home. The ADB says the Colonial Office then agreed to send two official Catholic chaplains. Father Philip Conolly, the senior man, and Father John Joseph Therry, a young priest from Cork, sailed in the convict ship Janus and arrived in Sydney in May 1820. Most sources give 3 May, though the historian Sternbeck gives 2 May. For the first time the colony had Catholic priests sanctioned by both the church and the government.
Conolly moved on to Van Diemen's Land early in 1821, so Therry was left in Sydney. Wikipedia retells the story that on the day he arrived he had a vision of a great church of golden stone, dedicated to Mary, raising twin spires over the city. If he did, he had a long wait. The spires went up 180 years later.
The First Chapel, 1821
Therry asked for land for a chapel. According to Wikipedia he wanted a site on the western side of town, towards Darling Harbour, but he was given land on the edge of the town next to the convict barracks, looking over the brickfields that later became Hyde Park. The Dictionary of Sydney says the site meant the church ran north–south rather than the usual east–west, and it still does.
Therry wanted the foundation stone laid on All Saints' Day 1821. The Governor's secretary wrote back that Macquarie would be "very happy to have the honour of laying the first stone of the intended Roman Catholic Chapel", but not on that day. So it was laid on Monday 29 October 1821, with a presentation trowel, according to Sternbeck's 2023 paper on the chapel. Francis Greenway was involved early on. The Dictionary of Sydney says Therry wanted something grander than the simple design Greenway put up, and the ADB says Therry was criticised for the size of the building and the project quickly got out of hand financially.
The money dried up. The chapel had no roof until 1831, and the first Mass inside was not said until December 1833, a dozen years after the stone was laid. Meanwhile little buildings grew up around it between 1822 and 1828: St Joseph's Chapel, which was used for services while the big church was being finished, two presbyteries and a school.
Bishop Polding and the First Cathedral
John Bede Polding, an English Benedictine, arrived on 13 September 1835 as Vicar Apostolic of New Holland, Australia's first Catholic bishop. In 1842 he became the first Archbishop of Sydney. From then on St Mary's kept growing. The Dictionary of Sydney lists a belltower designed by Augustus Pugin, put up in 1843 with a peal of eight bells, and a chapter hall, also to Pugin's design, started in 1844. That hall is the oldest building on the site today, and the only Pugin building there.
The bells deserve a mention. Wikipedia says they came from the Whitechapel foundry in London and arrived in August 1843. They were the first bells hung for change ringing in Australia, and they rang for the first time on New Year's Day 1844.
A cloister, a new chapel, a sacristy, offices, a library and reading rooms followed, and from 1851 to 1857 a new façade and bell tower went up on College Street, again to Pugin's design. Father Therry didn't live to see what came next. He died on 25 May 1864.
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The Fire of 29 June 1865
On the night of 29 June 1865 the whole lot went up. The next morning the Sydney Morning Herald (30 June 1865) wrote:
"By far the largest and most disastrous conflagration which has ever occurred in Sydney happened last night and resulted in the total destruction of St Mary's Cathedral. This noble edifice, which was… the finest example of Church architecture to be found in the colony, is now an unsightly ruin."
The Dictionary of Sydney says all that was left standing was Pugin's façade and belltower and part of the north-east transept. The bells came through it unharmed.
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William Wardell's Design
Polding didn't waste time. In October 1865 he turned to William Wilkinson Wardell, a London-born architect and a friend of Pugin's who had come out to Australia in 1858. The ADB says Wardell had already designed around thirty Catholic churches in England, and out here he had St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne under way and had done plans for St John's College at the University of Sydney. In his letter of 10 October 1865, quoted on the cathedral's website, Polding gave him a free hand:
"Any plan, any style, anything that is beautiful and grand. I leave all to you and your own inspiration."
What Wardell came up with is Gothic Revival in the Geometric Decorated style of 13th-century England. Wikipedia says it leans heavily on Lincoln Cathedral, with the big chancel window tracery almost a copy of Lincoln's, while a 2024 paper on Wardell notes French touches such as the rose window and flying buttresses. Like the old chapel, it runs north–south because of the fall of the land and the sheer length of the building. The cathedral gives the measurements as 107 metres long, with a central tower 46.3 metres high and the front towers and spires reaching over 74 metres. He also worked Australian native plants into the carving.
Temporary Churches, 1865–1882
While all this was being drawn up, the Catholics of Sydney still needed somewhere to go to Mass. Wikipedia says a temporary wooden church was built and was itself burnt down in the summer of 1869. The Dictionary of Sydney talks about a pair of temporary timber buildings, then a brick 'pro-cathedral' in use from 1869. That brick building stood until 1910, when it was pulled down for a new school.
The Foundation Stone, 1868, and the Opening of 1882
The foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid on 8 December 1868. Polding didn't live to see it in use, as he died in 1877. On 8 September 1882 his successor, Archbishop Roger Bede Vaughan, presided at the dedication Mass for the first part, the northern end, while the rest was still a building site. Wikipedia says Vaughan gave a new peal of bells, rung for the first time that day. The builder of this stage was John Young, who also built The Abbey at Annandale.
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Moran, Kelly and the Long Finish
The work dragged on under Cardinal Patrick Moran. The cathedral was officially opened by Moran in 1900 and consecrated in 1905. The Dictionary of Sydney quotes Moran calling it a gift from the poor, since they had given most of the money. In 1913 Archbishop Michael Kelly laid the foundation stone for the final southern section, the nave and the twin towers. The cathedral's own timeline puts this second stage at 1912 to 1928. The architects for the south end were Hennessy, Hennessy and Co., and they added the flight of more than 30 steps at the front. If you look closely inside, you can still see a slight change in the colour and texture of the sandstone where the first stage meets the second.
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The Eucharistic Congress of 1928
Kelly dedicated the finished nave in 1928, just in time for the 29th International Eucharistic Congress. The Dictionary of Sydney describes the Congress as a huge celebration of world Catholicism that went off peacefully and drew big crowds, despite Protestant unease and fears of sectarian trouble. The heritage listing notes that the 1954 Congress was held at St Mary's as well.
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A Minor Basilica, 1932
On 4 August 1932 Pope Pius XI made St Mary's a minor basilica with the decree Inter Potiores Sacras. That's why its full name today is the Cathedral Church and Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Mother of God, Help of Christians, Patroness of Australia. In April 1939 Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, who died in office, lay in state there for several days before he was taken home to Devonport in Tasmania.
The Crypt and Its Floor, 1961
Under the cathedral is the crypt, where many of the early priests and bishops lie, including Father Therry, Archbishops Polding and Vaughan, Cardinal Moran and Archbishop Kelly. Vaughan had died in England in 1883, and his remains were later brought back to Sydney. The crypt wasn't finished until 1961, when Cardinal Gilroy dedicated it. Its great glory is the floor, which the State Library calls "the stunning terrazzo mosaic flooring of the crypt by Peter Melocco of the Melocco Brothers". It is laid out as a big Celtic-style cross, like a page from an illuminated manuscript, with roundels showing the Days of Creation and the titles of Mary. George Lambert's carved figure of a dead soldier used to lie in the crypt, but it has since been moved up into an aisle of the cathedral so more people can see it.
The Popes Come to St Mary's
Pope Paul VI was the first pope ever to visit Australia, and on Monday 30 November 1970 he said Mass in St Mary's. The New York Times correspondent wrote that the 73-year-old Pope looked close to exhaustion and had to be helped up the altar steps. The next day he met 65 bishops from Australia, New Zealand and Oceania in what the paper called the "stiflingly hot" cathedral.
Pope John Paul II came in January 1995, and on 19 January he beatified Mary MacKillop at Randwick Racecourse, the first Australian declared Blessed. When she was made Australia's first saint in 2010, a statue of St Mary of the Cross was put up at the Hyde Park entrance of the cathedral.
In July 2008 St Mary's was at the centre of World Youth Day. Pope Benedict XVI made an apostolic visit to the cathedral on 19 July and, in his homily that day, made a full apology for child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Australia.
New Bells, 1986
The 1882 bells were moved up into the central tower, the Moran Tower, in 1898. A century later a whole new ring was ordered, and the cathedral's timeline has a peal of 14 bells consecrated in 1986: a ring of twelve plus two extras. Seven of the old bells went off to St Francis Xavier's Cathedral in Adelaide, and the old tenor, the Moran Bell, is now the Angelus bell in the south-eastern tower. You'll hear them before Solemn Mass on Sundays, at weddings, and at the end of Symphony in the Domain with the 1812 Overture.
The Spires at Last, 2000
For seventy-odd years the two southern towers stood square-topped, and to plenty of Sydneysiders the place looked unfinished. Then, with a grant from the state government to mark the new millennium, Wardell's spires were finally built. The cathedral says that in June 2000 the metal frames were lowered into place by helicopter and then clad in Gosford sandstone, and they were blessed by Cardinal Edward Clancy. The Dictionary of Sydney dates the finish to August 2000, citing the Daily Telegraph's 'Cathedral Finally Finished' of 19 August 2000. The Dictionary of Sydney reckons that was 135 years after construction began.
Heritage Listing
St Mary's Cathedral and Chapter House were added to the NSW State Heritage Register on 3 September 2004. The listing calls the site the oldest place in the country still used for Catholic worship, the first land granted to the Catholic Church in Australia, and "the birthplace of Catholicism in Australia". It also says the fact that Macquarie laid the first stone "symbolises the reconciliation of the Catholic Church and the Australian state". The Chapter Hall gets a special mention as possibly the oldest surviving Catholic school building in Australia.
St Mary's Today
Today St Mary's is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and the mother church of Australian Catholics, and the Dictionary of Sydney calls it the largest church building in the English Gothic style in the world. It's open every day of the week. In 2018 it marked 150 years since Polding's foundation stone. The bicentenary of Macquarie's 1821 stone was held up by COVID and finally celebrated on 8 May 2022 with a Mass with the bishops of Australia. Big state occasions still come back here too. In December 2014 a memorial service was held at St Mary's for Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson after the Lindt Café siege.
Timeline
- Nov 1817 – Fr Jeremiah O'Flynn arrives in Sydney without government permission.
- May 1818 – O'Flynn deported (sails 20 May), leaving the consecrated host behind.
- Nov 1819 – A French naval chaplain most probably takes the sacrament away.
- May 1820 – Frs Conolly and Therry arrive in the Janus.
- 29 Oct 1821 – Macquarie lays the foundation stone of St Mary's Chapel.
- 1831 – The chapel finally gets a roof.
- Dec 1833 – First Mass in St Mary's.
- 13 Sep 1835 – Bishop Polding arrives.
- 1842 – Polding becomes first Archbishop of Sydney.
- 1843 – Pugin belltower and the first ring of eight Whitechapel bells.
- 1844 – Pugin's Chapter Hall begun; the bells first rung on New Year's Day.
- 1851–1857 – Pugin façade and bell tower on College Street.
- 25 May 1864 – Fr Therry dies.
- 29 June 1865 – Fire destroys the cathedral.
- 10 Oct 1865 – Polding writes to Wardell: "Any plan, any style…"
- 8 Dec 1868 – Foundation stone of the new cathedral laid.
- 1869 – Temporary wooden church burns; brick pro-cathedral in use.
- 1877 – Polding dies.
- 8 Sep 1882 – Archbishop Vaughan dedicates the northern part.
- 1898 – Bells moved into the central (Moran) tower.
- 1900 – Cathedral officially opened by Cardinal Moran.
- 1905 – Cathedral consecrated.
- 1913 – Archbishop Kelly lays the stone for the nave and southern towers.
- 1928 – Nave dedicated for the 29th International Eucharistic Congress.
- 4 Aug 1932 – Made a minor basilica by Pope Pius XI.
- 1939 – Prime Minister Joseph Lyons lies in state.
- 1954 – Eucharistic Congress held at St Mary's again.
- 1961 – Crypt and its terrazzo mosaic floor completed.
- 30 Nov 1970 – Pope Paul VI says Mass in the cathedral.
- 1986 – New peal of 14 bells consecrated.
- 19 Jan 1995 – John Paul II beatifies Mary MacKillop at Randwick.
- 2000 – Southern spires built and blessed.
- 3 Sep 2004 – Listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.
- 19 July 2008 – Pope Benedict XVI visits during World Youth Day.
- 2018 – 150 years since the 1868 foundation stone.
- 8 May 2022 – Delayed bicentenary of the 1821 stone celebrated.
Where the Sources Disagree
- Where the sacrament was kept. St Patrick's Church Hill says O'Flynn left it at William Davis's cottage, but notes that some say it was at James Dempsey's house in Kent Street, or at both.
- The day Therry and Conolly arrived. The ADB says May 1820, the Archdiocese and most others say 3 May, and Sternbeck (2023) says 2 May.
- When St Mary's became a cathedral. The Dictionary of Sydney says 1835, when Polding arrived. The cathedral's own timeline ties it to 1842, when Polding became Archbishop.
- The temporary churches after the fire. Wikipedia mentions one wooden church that burnt in 1869. The Dictionary of Sydney mentions a pair of timber buildings, then a brick pro-cathedral from 1869.
- When the building started. The cathedral's site and Wikipedia date the first stage from 1866. The foundation stone itself was laid on 8 December 1868.
- The month the spires were finished. The cathedral's site says the frames went up in June 2000. The Dictionary of Sydney cites an August 2000 newspaper report of the cathedral being finished.
My Earlier Posts
- Hyde Park - Sydney
- Queens Square - Macquarie Street
- Devonshire Street Cemetery – The Burial Ground Under Central Station
- Public Buildings and Churches in Sydney – 1880s
- Sydney 1873 – Photographs from the New South Wales State Library Digital Collections
- Assorted Drawings Of Old Colonial Sydney Town
Sources
- St Mary's Cathedral, 'History of the Cathedral' and timeline, https://stmaryscathedral.org.au/explore/history-art/history-of-the-cathedral/
- St Mary's Cathedral, 'About St Mary's Cathedral', https://stmaryscathedral.org.au/about-us/st-marys-cathedral/
- Mark Dunn, 'St Mary's Cathedral', Dictionary of Sydney, 2008, https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/st_marys_cathedral
- Dictionary of Sydney, 'O'Flynn, Jeremiah Francis', https://dictionaryofsydney.org/person/oflynn_jeremiah_francis
- Australian Dictionary of Biography, 'Jeremiah Francis O'Flynn', https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/oflynn-jeremiah-francis-2521
- Australian Dictionary of Biography, 'John Joseph Therry', https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/therry-john-joseph-2722
- Australian Dictionary of Biography, 'William Wilkinson Wardell', https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wardell-william-wilkinson-4802
- St Patrick's Church Hill, 'St Patrick's Church Hill History', https://stpatschurchhill.org/st-patricks-church-hill-history/
- John Sternbeck, 'For a Godly Purpose: Planning Saint Mary's Chapel in old Sydney-town', Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, 2023, https://australiancatholichistoricalsociety.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Sternbeck-REVV-jachs-2023.pdf
- Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Homily for the Bicentenary of the Arrival of the First Official Priests, 2020, https://www.sydneycatholic.org/homilies/2020/homily-for-mass-of-the-4th-sunday-of-easter-good-shepherd-sunday-year-a-bicentenary-of-the-arrival-of-the-first-official-priests-in-australia/
- Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Homily for the Anniversary of the Dedication of St Mary's Cathedral, 2026 (quoting the Sydney Morning Herald, 30 June 1865), https://www.sydneycatholic.org/homilies/2026/homily-for-mass-of-the-anniversary-of-the-dedication-of-st-marys-cathedral/
- State Library of NSW, 'St Mary's Cathedral', https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/discover_collections/history_nation/religion/catholics/cathedral/index.html
- Wikipedia, 'St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney' (includes NSW State Heritage Register listing text, SHR 1709), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Cathedral,_Sydney
- 'Solid Mass and Plain Exterior: The Ecclesiastical Architecture of William Wardell in Victoria', Fabric, 2024, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10331867.2024.2347016
- 'Pontiff, Deeply Tired, Visits Australia', New York Times, 1 December 1970, https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/01/archives/pontiff-deeply-tired-visits-australia-and-maintains-his-crowded.html
- Totus2us, 'St Paul VI's 1970 Pilgrimage to Australia', http://www.totus2us.co.uk/universal/australia/st-pvi-pilgrim-visit-1970/
- Vatican, Homily of John Paul II at the Beatification of Mary MacKillop, Randwick, 19 January 1995, http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1995/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19950119_beatificaz-sidney.html
- Sisters of Saint Joseph, 'The Beatification of Mary MacKillop', https://www.sosj.org.au/founded-to-respond/timeline/beatification-mmk-celebration/
- Wikimedia Commons (image files as credited above), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:St_Mary%27s_Cathedral,_Sydney