Celebrating 153 Years

1st  September

Sydney Heads … the 80th day since we left Plymouth and the 86th day since we left Kingstown … 12 o’clock 190 miles from Sydney. 

5th September

Sydney Harbour presented itself to our view, shores on both sides covered with a kind of brushwood, beautiful villas, scattered about here and there, like Swiss cottages … entering between the Heads, we expected to behold the city open before us … several projections had to be rounded before we could catch a glimpse of the far famed Sydney.

10th September

Arrived in East Maitland … made a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, took some luncheon, after which His Lordship brought letters from Kingstown that had come by the Panama mail … we seated ourselves on the grass and cried again and again on reading them … we then drove to St John’s Church where the people were assembled to meet us. His Lordship gave Benediction … the Te Deum was sung.

                                                                                                                Up she gets,

                                                                                                                                For up she must!

                                An account of a Journey for Kingstown, Ireland

to Maitland, Australia in 1867 during the Age of Sail

Elizabeth Hellwig OP

May today’s anniversary remind us,

even in the midst of Covid chaos,

of the many blessings we have received

over 153 years,

not the least of which

are found in each other.