St Mary's Cathedral, Wellington: Difference between revisions
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==Replacement== |
==Replacement== |
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Redwood treated the fire as providential and decided to replace the the destroyed cathedral with a new parish church for Thorndon and to transfer the title "St Mary's" to a new cathedral to be built on the corner of Tory St and Buckle St adjacent to [[St Patrick's College, Wellington]]. The projected site change and, in the event, the new St Mary's Cathedral was never built |
Redwood treated the fire as providential and decided to replace the the destroyed cathedral with a new parish church for Thorndon and to transfer the title "St Mary's" to a new cathedral to be built on the corner of Tory St and Buckle St adjacent to [[St Patrick's College, Wellington]]. The projected site change and, in the event, the new St Mary's Cathedral was never built. The pursuit of the new Cathedral was fruitless for many reasons, principally lack of money. This meant that Wellington was without an official Catholic Cathedral until 1984. The parish church to replace St Mary's Cathedral in Thorndon, [[Sacred Heart Cathedral, Wellington| the Basilica of the Sacred Heart]], was opened on 3 February 1901. For the 83 years it was the usual de facto Cathedral until, In 1984, the Basilica was officially designated as the Cathedral of the Archdiocese<ref name="O'Meeghan2"/>, and, with a bow to the old title of "St Mary's", it was dedicated and consecrated in that year under the title of "Metropolitan Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of St Mary his mother". |
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==Style== |
==Style== |
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Revision as of 08:41, 7 December 2014
| St Mary's Cathedral | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 41°16′36″S 174°46′34″E / 41.2766°S 174.7762°E | |
| Location | Thorndon, Wellington Central City |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Website | Sacred Heart Cathedral |
| History | |
| Founded | 1851 |
| Founder(s) | Philippe Viard, 1st Bishop of Wellington |
| Dedicated | 7 December 1851 (the feast of the Immaculate Conception) |
| Associated people | Francis Redwood, 2nd Bishop and 1st Archbishop of Wellington |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural type | Gothic Revival style |
St Mary's Cathedral was the Cathedral of the Catholic Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand for 47 years in the nineteenth century from its opening in 1851 until it was destroyed by fire in 1898.
Site
On 1 May 1850, the barque Clara arrived in Wellington Harbour from Auckland bringing the first Bishop of the diocese, Philippe Joseph Viard, S.M. Within three weeks of his arrival, accumulated funds collected by Catholics were placed in a special bank account at his disposal, and the site for the new Cathedral was bought in Thorndon. The site is now occupied by Sacred Heart Cathedral, Wellington and Sacred Heart Cathedral School. The Bishop also chose as the site for his mission, two sections adjoining this, both in Hawkestone Street, now occupied by St Mary's College. These sections were given by the Hon. Henry Petre.[1] The three sections were vested in the Bishop in 1853 by a Settlement of Wellington Town Grant. This was confirmed later by a Crown grant.[2]
Opening
On 8 September 1850, a "a lovely day, bright, calm," the feast of the birthday of Mary, Bishop Viard laid, "with a procession and all form", the foundation stone of the church which was to be his cathedral.[3] The ceremony was attended by over 2, 000 people.[4] The Cathedral of St Mary was complete enough to be blessed and opened for worship on Sunday 7 December 1851, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Some finishing work still remained to be done, but the Bishop wanted the context of the feast day, for the Cathedral was being dedicated to Mary under that title. A reporter said: "The consecration, including the celebration of Mass, occupied something more than four hours."[3]
Neighbours
When the Cathedral commenced, Hill St did not exist and access had to be gained to the site from Hawkestone St. The area was semi-rural and a little isolated. The expansion of Wellington was taking place along the Lambton Quay shore of Wellington Harbour and south towards Te Aro. But after the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 was passed by the United Kingdom Parliament, the buildings of the Wellington Provincial Council were opened across Hill St from the Cathedral. Hill St was newly constructed and St Mary's Cathedral was the most prominent feature on it. In 1865, the Provincial Buildings were occupied permanently by the New Zealand Parliament when the capital of New Zealand was transferred from Auckland to Wellington.[5]
Completion
Building the Cathedral continued slowly and in 1865 Bishop Viard appealed for funds. Sufficient was raised to extend the sanctuary and build a tower 32 metres high, whose important feature was a recess for a cast-iron statue of Our Lady which arrived from France in 1867 in time for the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady on 8 September. The statue was placed in the tower in memory of the consecration of of the diocese in 1855[4] to the Immaculate Conception, which Bishop Viard had carried out, after he had proclaimed the newly pronounced dogma, as a specific remedy against any recurrence of the series of severe earthquakes felt in the province of Wellington over several months in that year.[6] St Mary's Cathedral was considered "without exeception the finest ecclesiastical structure in the colony".[4] The expanded Cathedral was opened by Bishop Viard on Christmas Day, 1867. It was designed by Christian Julius Toxward, who also designed the first synagogue in Wellington and some of the additions to Old St Paul's.[4]
Expansion
Bishop Viard died on Sunday 2 June 1872. His funeral was presided over by Bishop Patrick Moran of Dunedin. He was buried in a brick-lined grave in the Cathedral in front of Mary's shrine with some pomp. 1,500 people of all denominations crowded the Cathedral for the burial after a long funeral procession around the streets of Wellington.[7] On 26 November 1874, Viard's successor, Francis Redwood, was received "solemnly and canonically" in the Cathedral "then unfinished except in the chancel".[8] Redwood eventually installed a marble altar and and a new organ in the Cathedral but he did not think that the Cathedral was adequate and in 1892 he put before the clergy in synod assembled the choice of either building a new cathedral or enlarging, improving and finishing the existing one. Constrained by the opinion of his clergy, who considered the diocese could not afford the cost of a new building, he commenced to do these things at a cost of £5,000. Repainting a section of of the tower proved necessary when part of the original work was below standard and had blistered.[9]
Destruction
About 8.30am on Monday 28 November 1898, the dry timber of the tower of the Cathedral caught alight when a workman was burning off old paint. The horse-drawn fire engine was slow to arrive, water pressure on the hill was low. Fanned by a southerly, the fire gradually took hold, burning upwards through the funnel of the tower and downwards until the nave was engulfed. Bystanders, including Sisters of Mercy, saved some of the sanctuary furnishings before the fire chief declared the building too dangerous to enter, and efforts were concentrated on stopping the blaze spreading to surrounding buildings. The cast-iron statue crashed down from the tower, but was later salvaged with minor damage.[10] However some eyewitnesses attested that when the Cathedral tower fell, the statue hung momentarily in mid air before descending slowly and gracefully and in an upright position to the ground where it landed completely undamaged.[11][12] It took about three hours for the Cathedral to be reduced to a smouldering ruin[10]
Replacement
Redwood treated the fire as providential and decided to replace the the destroyed cathedral with a new parish church for Thorndon and to transfer the title "St Mary's" to a new cathedral to be built on the corner of Tory St and Buckle St adjacent to St Patrick's College, Wellington. The projected site change and, in the event, the new St Mary's Cathedral was never built. The pursuit of the new Cathedral was fruitless for many reasons, principally lack of money. This meant that Wellington was without an official Catholic Cathedral until 1984. The parish church to replace St Mary's Cathedral in Thorndon, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, was opened on 3 February 1901. For the 83 years it was the usual de facto Cathedral until, In 1984, the Basilica was officially designated as the Cathedral of the Archdiocese[10], and, with a bow to the old title of "St Mary's", it was dedicated and consecrated in that year under the title of "Metropolitan Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of St Mary his mother".
Style
See also
References
- ^ Fearnley, p. 145.
- ^ Fearnley, p. 146.
- ^ a b O'Meeghan, p. 42
- ^ a b c d Fearnley, p. 146
- ^ Dan Kelly, pp. 15-17.
- ^ Dan Kelly, p. 13.
- ^ O'Meeghan, p. 94.
- ^ O'Meeghan, p. 101.
- ^ O'Meeghan, p. 173.
- ^ a b c O'Meeghan, pp. 172-175.
- ^ Fearnley, p. 148.
- ^ see: Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch describing a similar event in Christchurch 112 years later.
Main sources
- Charles Fearnley, "The Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Catholic: Hill St", in Early Wellington Churches, Millwood Press, Wellington, 1977, pp. 145–149.
- Dan Kelly, On Golders Hill: A History of the Thorndon Parish, Daniel Kelly/Parish of the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and of Saint Mary His Mother, Wellington, 2001.
- Michael O'Meeghan SM, Steadfast in hope: The Story of the Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington 1850-2000, Dunmore Press, Wellington, 2003.
External links
