Site Map   SPIRIT Founder Icon of Perpetual Help Vision of Alphonsus Saints & Blessed Redemptorists Today Charism Ministry Lifestyle HISTORY Sailing to Australia Expansion VOCATION Personal Witness Formation Programme Discerning a Vocation Discernment Prayer Vocation Contact Information Form EVENTS/LINKS Events Australia C.Ss.R. in Rome Africa Americas Asia Europe Redemptoristines General

REDEMPTORISTS SAIL FOR AUSTRALIA

On New Year's Day, 1882, a farewell dinner was given to six missionaries in the Redemptorist Monastery in Clapham, London. 

The leader of the departing group was Father Edmund Vaughan.   Born in 1827, and now fifty-three years of age, he was the uncle of the Archbishop of Sydney.       With him, and about to embark on an almost incredible missionary adventure, were three other Priests -

Father Thomas O'Farrell, who but a year before had joined the Redemptorists from the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise in Ireland. He lived to break his strength against the hardships of a new world at the ends of the earth.

Father James Hegarty also from Ireland, would accompany him.  A giant of a man, he would eventually, after years in Australia, bring the Redemptorists to the Philippines.

And Father Henry Halson born in the Isle of Wight, his frail physique belied the fact that for nine years he had been a miner on the goldfields of Australia around Ballarat.      There, if he had not found gold, he had found the gift of the Catholic Faith.  Received into the Church in Ballarat, he then studied for the Priesthood in Canada, was ordained in Rome, and a year later joined the Redemptorists in England.   Tomorrow, for a second time, he would sail for Australia.

Two Redemptorist Brothers were at that farewell meal, both of them from Ireland.

One was Brother Laurence Watters, destined to give most of his life to Australia, and die in New Zealand.

The other was Brother Daniel Gleeson.  Years later, his nephew would become a Redemptorist and a Bishop in Australia - Bishop Gleeson of Maitland, and Bishop Gleeson's father, would also become a Redemptorist Brother.

All felt the pain of parting, not only from home and country, but also from the companionship of confreres.

Unexpectedly, a distinguished visitor arrived with good wishes in the person of Cardinal Manning.  Encouraged by his blessing, the little group on the following day boarded the Orient liner "Sorata" bound for Australia, bringing with them a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, blessed in Rome by Pope Leo XIII.

Eight weeks later, at 10 a.m. on March 31st, 1882, the "Sorata" sailed through Sydney Heads and the work of the Redemptorists in Australia began.

What had inspired these men to exchange a life so settled for a life so insecure?

The answer is found in the Faith of a man called Alphonsus Liguori