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John Bede Polding (1794–1877)
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 * John Bede Polding was born on 18 November 1794 at Liverpool, England. His father was of Dutch descent and his mother came from the Brewer family. His parents died and at 8 he was placed in the care of his uncle, Father Bede Brewer, president-general of the English Benedictine Congregation.


 * Polding was first taught by the Benedictine nuns of the Convent of Our Lady of Consolation of Cambray, who as refugees from revolutionary France were located at Much Woolton, near Liverpool.


 * At 11 he was sent to St Gregory's Benedictine College, at Acton Burnell, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire. On 15 July 1810 Polding was admitted to the religious community, taking the name of Bede.


 * He received minor orders in 1813 from Bishop Milner at Wolverhampton, was ordained priest by Bishop Poynter at Old Hall College on 4 March 1819, and on the 21st sang his first mass at Downside.


 * Meanwhile he had undergone the rigorous juniorate of the Benedictines, excelling in philosophy and theology. In 1814 the community transferred to St Gregory's Monastery, Downside, where Polding remained for twenty years, filling various offices in the school and monastery, and in 1826-34 serving as secretary to the president-general of the Benedictine Congregation.


 * As prefect, Polding endeared himself to the boys, one of whom was to recall his prowess as a teacher of drama, his patriotism, and his sympathy for the Irish; 'though a thorough Lancashire man, he always identified himself with Irish boys in their interest for their country and her wrongs'.


 * As became a Lancashire man Polding also had a great interest and some skill in cricket. His boyhood interest in the religious plight of New South Wales took firmer shape when he became novice-master in 1823.


 * By Papal Briefs in 1834 Polding was appointed bishop of Hiero-Caesarea and vicar-apostolic of New Holland, Van Diemen's Land and the adjoining islands. He had declined earlier appointments for Mauritius and Madras but he accepted the Australian office on 14 June. Two weeks later in his private chapel Bishop Bramston, the vicar-apostolic of London, assisted by Bishops Griffiths and Rouchouze, consecrated Polding.


 * In the last stages of his fatal sickness in 1877 the compassion of the whole colony went out to him, symbolized perfectly by the tears of J. D. Lang as he left the archbishop's sick-room. Polding died at Sacred Heart Presbytery, Darlinghurst, in Sydney, on 16 March 1877


 * He was buried in Petersham cemetery, and his remains were transferred to St Mary's Cathedral on 17 March 1901.