Vietnamese-born Fr Linh Pham has been parish priest at St Ambrose’s since 2020.
Friday, November 17, 2023
T
HE Archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli, will conduct Mass at St Ambrose’s Catholic Church in Brunswick this Sunday as the church community celebrates 150 years since the bluestone building on Sydney Road was completed.
Between 250 to 300 people are expected to attend the Mass at 10.30am, filling the church to full capacity. That will be followed by a catered lunch in the church grounds. At 2pm the musical group Progetto Corelli will perform a concert in the church.
St Ambrose’s, which officially opened in time for Christmas in 1873, is one of the oldest churches in Victoria.
With the help of parishioner Patricia Murray, a member of the co-ordinating committee for the celebrations, here is a potted history of the church.
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Early days of Catholicism in Brunswick
The Brunswick area was surveyed in 1839, four years after the first European settlers arrived in Port Phillip. The few Catholic families in Brunswick – mostly poor Irish immigrants – first had to travel into the township of Melbourne to attend Mass in a small weatherboard chapel built on the site of what is now St Francis’ Church on the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale streets.
But after the first Bishop of Melbourne James Goold arrived in 1848 the search began for new locations for churches to cater for the increasing Catholic population. In 1850, the foundation stone for St Paul’s church in Pentridge (later named Coburg) had been laid and a priest, Fr Patrick Dunne, arrived from Ireland with a mission extending north from Brunswick. But work on building the new church was delayed by Gold Rush and it was not finished until 1855.
This was where Brunswick Catholics would worship for the next 18 years.
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A meeting in a pub leads to the formation of a church
By 1860, Brunswick was growing rapidly as a stopping place on the way to the goldfields and the location of Melbourne’s brickworks industry.
That year, a meeting was held at the Sarah Sands Hotel to discuss establishing a Catholic church in the suburb. The priest at St Paul’s, Fr Charles O’Hea, gave his blessing and Michael Dawson, a wealthy Irish landowner, donated a one acre block of land on Sydney Road for a bluestone church and a school. In 1869, O’Hea turned the first sod and the following year, the Vicar General Dean Fitzpatrick laid the foundation stone. A newspaper of the time reported:
“The weather was beautifully fine, and about 800 persons from the various parts of the surrounding district were present at the sacred ceremonies. The want of a Catholic Church in Brunswick has been severely felt for a long time by the Catholics of the Borough, who are obliged to go to Coburg to Mass or come to Melbourne.”
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The church cost £6000
The new church was designed by J. M. Robertson who included a 22.5 metre bell tower that was not built due to its expense. Made primarily of bluestone in a late Gothic style, the church cost £6000 or about $1.2 million in today’s money.
It was named St Ambrose after the first Bishop of Lombardy on the suggestion of Sebastian Danielli, whose family arrived in Brunswick from Milan in 1869 and set up a pasta-making business on Sydney Road. They were one of the few Italian families in Brunswick in those days.
The Vicar General presided over the first Mass just before Christmas in 1873 and O’Hea was appointed pastor, a role he would carry out for another 17 years in addition to his role at St Paul’s in Coburg.
The parish priest used to live in Saxon Street
St Ambrose’s became an independent parish with its own priest, Fr Edmund Luby, another Irishman, in 1890.
During his time, enrolment at the St Ambrose primary school grew to 300 and the church building was extended, including two side chapels completed in 1899.
The presbytery where Fr Luby lived until his sudden death from a heart attack on April 17, 1911, aged 55, was the double storey mansion in Saxon Street which was built in 1888 as a home for Alfred Cornwell who operated one of Brunswick’s largest clay pit and pottery works (Cornwell died in 1890).
That mansion, just a short distance behind the church, remained the presbytery until 1969. Today it is owned by Merri-bek Council and will be the centrepiece of the yet-to-be-named cultural and community hub being constructed in Saxon Street.
Following a requiem Mass for Fr Luby led by Archbishop Thomas Carr, the parish community began work on a new altar to commemorate him. In a decorative Gothic style, it is made of white Sicilian marble and Australian red marble.
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St Ambrose’s choir was famous
In 1891, the church bought a pipe organ for £500 or about $110,000 today. The organ would accompany the parish choir, which by the 1920s had swelled to 150 choristers. The choir featured regularly on ABC radio as the 11 o’clock Mass was often broadcast live, and it also performed up the road at the Brunswick Town Hall.
A typical promotion in The Advocate newspaper in 1927 read:
“In aid of the Christian Brothers’ carnival, a grand concert will be given in the Brunswick Town Hall on Thursday evening 15 September at 8 o’clock by St Ambrose’s choir, assisted by Miss Maisie Ramsay and Mr John Sullivan. A very fine programme has been prepared, comprising solos and duets and orchestral items. Miss Maisie Ramsay and Mr John Sullivan will be heard in the Miserere from II Trovatore. Amongst the choir numbers will be Rossini’s La Carita, which has not been sung in Victoria for years. Miss Mollie Forster will be the accompanist, with Mr Hugh McRae, musical director. The price of admission has been fixed at one shilling.”
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St Ambrose’s was headquarters of the anti-conscription movement
Brunswick sent about 5000 young men to the First World War, who enlisted at the Brunswick Mechanics Institute opposite St Ambrose’s church – about 700 of them never returned.
A parishioner at St Ambrose’s, the unionist and journalist John Curtin – who lived close by in Fallon Street – was a conscientious objector, and St Ambrose’s Hall became the Brunswick headquarters of the anti-conscription movement. Curtin would later become Prime Minister of Australia during World War Two.
The Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Daniel Mannix, had a close association with the Catholic people of Brunswick, particularly the anti-conscriptionists. In a speech given at St Ambrose’s he claimed that the war was simply a ‘trade war’ without divine sanction or moral justification.
During World War Two, when the threat of a Japanese invasion was much feared, trenches were dug around St Ambrose’s church and school and plans were made to evacuate children if necessary.
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The parish priest used to live in Saxon Street
St Ambrose became an independent parish with its own priest, Fr Edmund Luby, another Irishman, in 1890.
During his time, enrolment at the St Ambrose primary school grew to 300 and the church building was extended, including two side chapels completed in 1899.
The presbytery where Fr Luby lived until his sudden death from a heart attack on April 17, 1911, aged 55, was the double storey mansion in Saxon Street which was built in 1888 as a home for Alfred Cornwell who operated one of Brunswick’s largest clay pit and pottery works (Cornwell died in 1890).
That mansion, just a short distance behind the church, remained the presbytery until 1969. Today it is owned by Merri-bek Council and will be the centrepiece of the yet to be named cultural and community hub being constructed in Saxon Street.
Following a requiem Mass for Fr Luby led by Archbishop Thomas Carr, the parish community began work on a new altar to commemorate him. In a decorative Gothic style, it is made of white Sicilian marble and Australian red marble.
St Ambrose’s choir was famous
In 1891, the church bought a pipe organ for £500 or about $110,000 today. The organ would accompany the parish choir, which by the 1920s had swelled to 150 choristers. The choir featured regularly on ABC radio as the 11 o’clock Mass was often broadcast live, and it also performed up the road at the Brunswick Town Hall.
A typical promotion in The Advocate newspaper in 1927 read:
“In aid of the Christian Brothers’ carnival, a grand concert will be given in the Brunswick Town Hall on Thursday evening 15 September at 8 o’clock by St Ambrose’s choir, assisted by Miss Maisie Ramsay and Mr John Sullivan. A very fine programme has been prepared, comprising solos and duets and orchestral items. Miss Maisie Ramsay and Mr John Sullivan will be heard in the Miserere from II Trovatore. Amongst the choir numbers will be Rossini’s La Carita, which has not been sung in Victoria for years. Miss Mollie Forster will be the accompanist, with Mr Hugh McRae, musical director. The price of admission has been fixed at one shilling.”
† † †
St Ambrose’s was headquarters of the anti-conscription movement
Brunswick sent about 5000 young men to the First World War, who enlisted at the Brunswick Mechanics Institute opposite St Ambrose’s church – about 700 of them never returned.
A parishioner at St Ambrose’s, the unionist and journalist John Curtin – who lived close by in Fallon Street – was a conscientious objector, and St Ambrose’s Hall became the Brunswick headquarters of the anti-conscription movement. Curtin would later become Prime Minister of Australia during World War Two.
The Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Daniel Mannix, had a close association with the Catholic people of Brunswick, particularly the anti-conscriptionists. In a speech given at St Ambrose’s he claimed that the war was simply a ‘trade war’ without divine sanction or moral justification.
During World War Two, when the threat of a Japanese invasion was much feared, trenches were dug around St Ambrose’s church and school and plans were made to evacuate children if necessary.
European migration changed the church
Brunswick became a major destination for migrants from southern Europe – particularly Sicily and Calabria – in the early years after World War Two, and their numbers swelled St Ambrose’s parish.
Until then, St Ambrose’s had been a largely Irish Catholic flock, but it began to take on a strongly Italian accent. Until recent years, an Italian Mass was held every Sunday and to this day the Italian Festa tradition continues.
One of St Ambrose’s most famous parishioners, the political activist B.A. Santamaria – whose anti-communist Movement led to the split of the Labor Party in the 1950s – was of Italian origin, although he was born in Australia. Santamaria’s parents operated a fruit shop in Sydney Road and he attended primary school at St Ambrose’s.
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A future Archbishop was the parish priest
Fr Frank Little was the St Ambrose’s priest between 1971 and 1973 on his way to being appointed the sixth Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne from 1974 to 1996.
Of his time at St Ambrose’s, Little wrote:
“I felt privileged to have been part of the parish’s life and growth. The people of St Ambrose can be rightfully proud of the way, in recent times, in which so many from all corners of the globe have been welcomed, made to feel at home and assisted in settling into Australia. I loved the people of Brunswick. They are a special lot. It was a privilege to collaborate with them as they generously served the Church. It was a challenging parish, but we had a great time together and I will ever remain grateful to my co-workers. I was very sorry to leave there after my appointment as an auxiliary bishop, later becoming Archbishop of Melbourne.”
Italian parishioners from St Ambrose’s filled the three back benches at Little’s official reception as Archbishop in St Patrick’s Cathedral in East Melbourne.
Today St Ambrose’s is part of a larger parish
In 2020, Vietnamese-born Fr Linh Pham was appointed St Ambrose’s parish priest, reflecting the constant evolution of Brunswick as new generations of migrants make the area their home. He has been joined by Fr Tho Tran following the retirement of Fr Greg Bourke.
Pham, 47, replaced Fr Michael Casey, who was parish priest for 22 years from 1997, making him equal longest serving priest with Luby. During his time, Casey set up a foodbank and welcomed asylum seekers into his house.
Pham came to Australia in 2007 and the following year began his theological studies at the Corpus Christi seminary in Carlton, achieving ordination as a priest in 2013. Prior to taking over St Ambrose’s, he was the master of ceremonies at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Pham said St Ambrose’s was a “special” parish because of its history and its location at the gateway to the northern suburbs and close to the CBD.
After learning about the church’s history, he said he saw parallels with the Catholic Church in Vietnam in the way poor Irish migrants collectively found the wherewithal to start a church in their community.
“When those migrants arrived, they formed a community and the church had a very central part of their culture,” he said.
“I was impressed how they donated land and even during a recession, they built a church like this out of bluestone. This is similar to in Vietnam, people were poor but they put everything into building their church.”
Since August 2020, St Ambrose’s has been part of the Brunswick Moreland Catholic Community with three other parishes, St Fidelis’ in Coburg, Our Lady’s in Brunswick East, and St Joseph’s in Brunswick West, with a combined congregation of about 600.
Pham said more than half of the congregation today were Italian-Australians.
Slide show: Archbishop of Melbourne visits St Ambrose’s on November 19.
In a statement provided to Brunswick Voice ahead of this Sunday’s events, Archbishop Comensoli said the church owed deep gratitude to the early pioneers who established St Ambrose’s.
“One hundred and fifty years inevitably sees great change,” he said.
“Today the Brunswick and Moreland Catholic community embraces renewed ways to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of their community that is truly local and that builds on a journey of faith which has been lived well and faithfully over so many years.
“I congratulate the community on all that has been achieved, and for the missionary energy and spirit that will lead them well into the future. May St Ambrose, one of the great Doctors of the Church, be a guiding hand that continues to nurture this family for many years to come.”
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