With Him there is Plentiful Redemption    REDEMPTORISTS COME TO AUSTRALIA
    On New Year's Day, 1882, a farewell dinner was given in the Redemptorist Monastery in Clapham, London for six missionaries on the eve of their departure for Australia .
 Father Edmund Vaughan was the leader of the departing group.   Father Vaughan, born in 1827, was now fifty-three years of age, and had the distinction of being the uncle of the Archbishop of Sydney. 

With him, and about to embark on their almost incredible missionary adventure, were three other Priests-
Thomas O'Farrell, James Hegarty and Henry Halson. 

 
 
Father Thomas O'Farrell had joined the Redemptorists the year before 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. 
Another Irishman, Father James Hegarty-a giant of a man- after years in Australia would introduce the Redemptorists to the Philippines.
 Father Henry Halson was born in the Isle of Wight. His frail physique belied the fact that  he had been a miner on the goldfields of Australia around Ballarat for nine years.  
He had not found his fortune in gold; he had found the gift of the Faith.  He was received into the Church in Ballarat, studied for the Priesthood in Canada, was ordained in Rome, and a year later joined the Redemptorists in England.  
For a second time, he would sail for Australia. 
               Two Irish, Redemptorist Brothers were in the Mission band.
Brother Laurence Watters was destined to give most of his life to the Australian mission, and died in New Zealand. 

 
Brother Daniel Gleeson, the last member of the band of missioners, was to see his nephew become a Redemptorist and a Bishop in Australia - Bishop Gleeson of Maitland, and Bishop Gleeson's father,  also become a Redemptorist Brother.

            The pain of parting, not only from home and country, but also from the companionship of confreres was keenly felt by each of the missioners.

         Cardinal Manning unexpectedly arrived at the farewell to offer his good wishes.  Encouraged by his blessing, the little group boarded the Orient liner "Sorata" next day bound for Australia.

         They brought with them a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, blessed in Rome by Pope Leo XIII. They introduced devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, now a Redemptorist tradition, to Australia.

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

          The inspiration of these men to exchange a life so settled for a life so insecure in a far off mission country was the Faith of a man called St Alphonsus Liguori.
 


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