bens+john+bede+polding

//__**JOHN BEDE POLDING**__//

**//JOHN BEDE POLDING WAS THE FIRST AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP. HE WAS ORN ON ﻿18 NOVEMBER 1794 IN LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.//** **//JOHN BEDE POLDING'S PARENTS DIED WHEN HE WAS ONLY 8 AND HE WAS LEFT IN THE HANDS OF HIS UNCLE.//** **//WHEN HE WAS 11 HE WAS SENT TO ST GREGORY'S BENEDICTINE COLLEGE AT ACTON BURNELL NEAR SHREWSBURY, SHROPSHIRE.//**

**//HE WENT TO ST GREGORY'S MONASTERY, DOWNSIDE IN 1814 AND HE STAYED FOR 20 YEARS.//**

**//ON 13 SEPTEMBER 1835, JOHN BEDE POLDING ARRIVED IN SYDNEY.//**

**//HE BECAME INVOLVED IN THE CONTROL OF SCHOOLS AND BY 1836 HAD 13 PRIKMARY SCHOOLS WITH GOVERNMENT SUPPORT AND HAD BEGUN A PROGRAM TO BUILD OTHERS.//**

**//IN 1857 HE FOUNDED THE FIST AUSTRALIAN REGLIGIOUS COMMUNITY, THE SISTERS OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN OF THE ORDER OF ST BENEDICT. IT WAS TO CATER TO THE NEEDS OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND ABORIGINES.//**

**//JOHN BEDE POLDING SPENT HIS LAST YEARS RAISING MONEY TO RE-BUILD ST MARY'S CATHEDRAL IN SYDNY WHICH HAD BEEN DESTROYED BY A FIRST IN 1865.//**

**//HE DIED ON 16 MARCH 1877 AT DARLINGHURST, SYDNEY.//**