Sesquicentenary Celebration of Chapel
On the feast of St Catherine of Siena in 1872, the first Dominican Church in Australia under the title of ‘St Mary and St Lawrence O’Toole’ was opened in Maitland. Archbishop Polding and the bishops of Armidale and Bathurst presided at the Pontifical High Mass. (Bishop Murray was in Ireland). Fr Julian Tennison Woods preached the homily. The sisters sang the mass from the organ gallery. Mother M. Agnes Bourke and her community of just 14 Sisters, including the first Australian-born novice, Sr M. Joseph Murnane, showed that they were risk takers and strong believers in their future as Catholic educators in the then Colony of NSW.
On the feast of St Catherine, one hundred and fifty years later, St Mary’s Campus of All Saints College celebrated this anniversary with Mass, in the presence of staff, students and the Dominican Sisters in the Hunter. The Chalice the Sisters brought with them on the Martha Birnie in 1867 was used to honour the occasion, as it would have been used in 1872.
We give thanks for all those women who were received into the Dominican Community and were professed in this Chapel over those years. We remember too those whose funeral mass was celebrated here. May the many blessings received by Sisters, their families and students continue to make a mark on all generations who pray in this Chapel during the next phase of its history.
