Today, the Carmelites of Australia and Timor-Leste are celebrating the 145th anniversary of the arrival of the first Carmelite friars in Australia.
On 16 April 1881 five Irish Carmelites landed at Port Adelaide (SA) aboard the SS Liguria. They were Frs Joseph Butler (Prior), Hilarion Byrne, Ignatius Carr, Brocard Leybourne and Patrick Shaffery.
The Carmelites had been given the pastoral care of the parish of Gawler, about 40 kilometres north of Adeliade, by Bishop Reynolds. Since it was Holy Saturday that year, Fr Butler travelled on to Gawler that same day and preached his first sermon in Australia on Easter Sunday.
Fr John Cogan, who also served in Gawler in later years, recalled the talents of the five pioneers:
Fr Butler was a distinguished orator, a theologian an literary man; Fr Carr was a solid religious prudent man, a giant student and theologian and an Irish speaking scholar; Fr Leybourne was a pleasing, attractive speaker, ascetic in his ways, literary and artistic in his tastes; Fr Byrne was a musician of considerable talent in profane and sacred music and of great urbanity and disposition; Fr Shaffery was a thorough dogmatic and moral theologian with much historical lore and an impressive preacher.
Gawler parish was almost 1126 square kilometres in those days and included 10 small towns and settlements. The 5 Carmelites travelled about their large parish by train, buggy or on horseback, staying overnight in sacristies, homesteads or occasionally in hotels. The usual Sunday program involved morning Mass and evening devotions at Gawler, and Mass at Virginia, Stockport, Pinkerton Plains and Mallala. There were occasionally Masses at Smithfield and Williamstown as well. The Carmelites were also in demand for missions, retreats, lectures and occasional sermons.
In October 1881 Frs Butler and Shaffery began a series of missions in Melbourne, returning to Gawler in February with an invitation from Archbishop Goold to return as pastors of Sandridge parish (Port Melbourne/Middle Park), an invitation which they took up in April 1882.
The Carmelites remained in Gawler until 1902 when, with mixed feelings, they moved to the parish of Port Adelaide.
We give thanks today for the generosity of the Irish Carmelites who made these 5 talented priests available for the Australian mission at a time when there were less than 40 Carmelites in their own Province.
Photo: (Standing L – R) Frs Brocard Leybourne, Ignatius Carr, Patrick Shaffery
(Sitting) Frs Joseph Butler and Hilarion Byrne
With thanks to Fr Paul Chandler for information from his book, The Carmelites in Australia: A Brief History
