Bi-centenary of Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney 1821 - 2021

The editor of this blog was approached to assist the staff of the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Sydney The Catholic Weekly in the preparation of a special edition commemorative of the Bi-centenary of Saint Mary's Cathedral.

This commemorative edition has now been published and an online version of it may be viewed here.

Old Saint Mary's as it appeared in the early 1840s.
Image : The Saint Bede Studio

Four special articles were written about old Saint Mary' Cathedral (1821-1865).  Some of the information has already appeared on our other Catholic history blog In diebus illis, but special images were prepared to illustrate the articles.

Since every word had to count in limited print space, I was not able to mention those who assisted me in this project.  I wish to do so here.

Mr Brian Andrews of Tasmania

Dr Lienntje Cornelissen, Sydney Archdiocesan Archivist

Mr Giovanni Portelli, Catholic photographer

The Very Rev'd Donald Richardson, Dean of Saint Mary's Cathedral

Staff of Special Collections, State Library of New South Wales

Mr Simon Fieldhouse, Sydney artist

Prof. James Franklin, Vice-President of the Australian Catholic Historical Society.

Mr Peter Rosengren, editor of the Catholic Weekly.

The Friends of Saint Mary's Cathedral.

Various encouragers known to the editor.

AMDG.

Old Saint Mary's Cathedral Sydney : 1

A sketch of Saint Mary's Cathedral precinct, 1836
Image : The National Library of Australia.

Adjacent is a watercolour of Saint Mary's Cathedral precinct around the year 1836. The dirt track running from left to right in the foreground would become Saint Mary's Road. In the background the largest building is old Saint Mary's, commenced in 1821 and which had become Archbishop Polding's Cathedral in 1835. This view shews the rear of the Cathedral, including one of its transepts, facing north.

Four other buildings are depicted in this watercolour. At the left is a school, on the right, a residence for clergy. Another residence, with a small verandah,  is in the centre, although it is not clear in which of these buildings the Archbishop lived.

Hiding between the two residences is a two-storey building, which was Saint Joseph's chapel. Because Saint Mary's took so long to build, a temporary chapel was built for the needs of the faithful. Saint Joseph's chapel continued to be used long after the Cathedral was complete. It is probable that this collection of buildings was demolished when work on the new Cathedral commenced in 1868.

Gothick Churches The United Kingdom and Ireland : 1

Church of S' John the Evangelist, Ballinasloe (1840).

Before that period of architecture began in England and on the Continent known as The Gothic Revival, architects had been dabbling for almost a century in "Gothic" for domestic, civil and ecclesiastical buildings.

Buildings of this type generally are described by the term Gothick, which has become a sort of perjorative. These buildings generally lacked the sophisticated expression of form and decoration of Gothic Revival buildings and sometimes their proportions were not all they might be.

Nevertheless, accepted as they are, there is much to admire. This post concerns a Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican Communion) church in the town of Ballinasloe in County Galway, Ireland, dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist. This church was built in the year 1840 at the very end of the Gothick period and designed by the architect Joseph Welland.

Saint John the Evangelist is a modest stone building of good proportions with a tower rising slightly behind (rather than projecting from) its western facade. All the details are very simple, although lacking the finesse of mediaeval churches of the Early English period.

Western facade of the Ballinasloe Church.

Perhaps the most obvious tell-tale that this is Gothick is the cruciform design, which was typical of churches of this period. Mediaeval English churches (at least of those in the Gothic period as distinct from the earlier Norman and Saxon periods) were not cruciform in this manner. More likely, they had an aisle, or two aisles abutting the nave, beyond which transepts might extend. But hardly ever is to be found a pair of transepts projecting from a one-room mediaeval nave. Such a form of church became more common after the Reformation in England, when "Gothic" came less and less to be used for church building as Catholic worship was rejected.

Building anew in the Gothic style is now a difficult matter. It is expensive and architects who understand the "grammar" of Gothic are somewhat rare. Perhaps the pared-back style of the Gothick period might be considered anew? A building which is done simply and well is much to be preferred to something very elaborate which fails miserably.

Interestingly, the Catholic parish of Ballinasloe has a later church design by AWN Pugin himself and what a fine building it is! To be discussed in another post.