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A Noble, Catholic Archbishop




 * John Bede Polding was born on 18th of October 1794 at Liverpool, England. He died at the age of 83 in 1877. His father was a Dutch, and his mother came from the Brewer family in the 1600s. **


 * John’s parents died when he was only 8 and was placed at his uncle’s care, Father Bede Brewer. He went to school and was taught by the Benedictine nuns of the Convent of Our Lady of Consolation of Cambray, and at the age of 11 he was sent to Benedictine College. On 15th of July 1810 John was admitted to the religious community, having the name of Bede. **
 * In 1819 he was ordained and filled **** in turn the offices of parish priest, prefect, novice-master, and sub-prior in his monastery. **** Propaganda selected Polding Vicar Apostolic of Madras, Bishop of Hiero-Cæsarea. It was pointed out, however, that his health could not stand the climate of Madras, and the Holy See accepted this excuse as sufficient. **
 * About this time an appeal was made to the pope to send a bishop to New South Wales. Polding was appointed to this newly-created vicariate which, besides New South Wales, included the rest of New Holland and Van Dieman's Land. The consecration took place in London, 29 June, 1834. **
 * Bishop Polding reached Sydney in September, 1835, and at once set to work to organize his vast diocese. **
 * He found only three priests in New South Wales and one in Tasmania; these with the three or four Benedictine monks whom he had brought with him constituted the entire force at his disposal. Then, and for many years afterwards, he worked like one of his priests, saying Mass daily in various stations, often in the convict prisons, teaching the Catechism, hearing the confessions of multitudes, and attending the sick and dying. **


 * Two provincial synods were held, at Sydney in 1844 and at Melbourne in 1859; he founded the University College of St. John at Sydney and the College of St. Mary, Lyndhurst. He visited Europe in 1846-48, in 1854-56, and in 1865-68, returning on each occasion with new helpers in his work. In 1870 he started for Rome to take part in the Vatican Council, but his health failed on the journey and he returned to Sydney. In 1873 the Holy See appointed Dom Roger Bede Vaughan, another Downside monk, as his coadjutor with right of succession, and from this time he gradually withdrew from active work. **