Sacred Heart Monastery – 1 Roma Avenue – Kensington – NSW

Sacred Heart Monastery - 1 Roma Avenue - Kensington - New South Wales 

 

Designed by Sheeren Hennessy and build McDonald's McIntyre in 1995, Chapel attached to Monastery designed by Hely and King and built by PG Ryan in 1923

In 1885 it was decided that the training house for missionaries was required in Sydney. As a result of this decision the priests and sisters were joining properties on the sandhills at Kensington.
Built of Pyrmont sandstone, monastery and convent open June 1897.
The Mona Street church for local Catholics from 1897 to 1907 went to school church was still outside the Mona Street

Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel – Mount Street – North Sydney – New South Wales

Mount Street, North Sydney, just off the Pacific Highway bustle, drops you into a quieter Josephite precinct. The Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel at 7–11 Mount Street sits inside Mary MacKillop Place, the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart campus. Mother Baptista Molloy had the Gothic Revival chapel built in 1913 as a memorial to Mary MacKillop — St Mary of the Cross, co-founder of the Josephites and later Australia’s first saint. Land was given in memory of the Daly family. Archbishop Michael Kelly dedicated the chapel on 18 January 1914.

Only days later, on 28 January 1914, Mary MacKillop’s remains were brought from Gore Hill Cemetery and reinterred in a vault before Our Lady’s altar (the vault associated with her friend Johanna Barr-Smith). On 20 December 1993 the remains were moved again into the former vestry so pilgrims could reach a more accessible shrine, ahead of beatification in 1995 and canonisation in 2010. The chapel remains a working place of prayer and the focus of Josephite memory on Mount Street.

Photographs here show the chapel’s stone exterior, pointed arches and tower profile, and aspects of the Mount Street setting.

 

Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel - Mount Street  North Sydney  

St Mary’s Cathedral - College Street & Art Gallery Road

 ST MARYS 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 Davies, Irish rebel. For two years in 1818 to 1820, 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 as prescribed. They were obliged, on penalty of flogging for absenteeism, to attend protestant services. Sacrament on Church Hill kept hope alive At a time when the felling 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 trowellef 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 also destroyed by fire.
Another wooden pro cathedral  was built and was used until the first part of William Wardell’s Great perpendicular gothic Cathedral could be opened in 1882.
Work went on until 1928, but Unfinished Between 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 Later After A Bellflower. offices, Cloister & Library Were Added. 
4. The Church Was Destroyed Fire On June 29, 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. 
5. 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 Cathedrals  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 Peoples 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 Were The Only Feature To Survive After The June 1865 Fire. Cast at The white Chapel Foundry In London, They Were Traded In For A New ring Of Eight Bells, Which Were Installed In1881. 





Three Popes Have Visited St Mary's Cathedral Including Pope Paul XI In 1980, Pope John Paul II In 1986 & 1995, & Pope Benedict XVI, As Part Of World Youth Day Celebrations Held In Sydney In 2008. 







A House For God In Old Sydney Town - Catholic Weekly