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The Most Reverend James Goold OSA
1st Archbishop of Melbourne
James Goold as Archbishop of Melbourne
Church	Roman Catholic Church
Archdiocese	Melbourne
In office	1874–1887
Predecessor	new title
Successor	Thomas Carr
Previous post(s)	Bishop of Melbourne (1848–1874)
Orders
Ordination	19 July 1835 (Priest)
Consecration	6 August 1848 (Bishop) in St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney by John Bede Polding
Personal details
Born	James Alypius Goold 4 November 1812 County Cork, Ireland
Died	11 June 1886(1886-06-11) (aged 73) Brighton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Buried	St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne
Nationality	Irish
Denomination	Roman Catholic Church

Styles of James Alypius Goold
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Grace
Religious style	Archbishop

James Alipius Goold (4 November 1812 – 11 June 1886) was an Australian Augustinian friar and the founding Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne in Australia.

Life

Early years

Goold was born in Cork, Ireland. He attended a school establised by the Augustinian order and then in 1830 at eighteen years old "entered the Augustinian novitiate in Granstown, County Wexford and was professed on 30 March 1832". Goold then continued his training in Perugia, Italy and was ordained on 19 July 1835. (From 1695 until the 19th century, Irish students for the Catholic priesthood were often sent to the Continent to study due to the then existing penal laws in Britain and Ireland.)

Missioner

After being ordained Goold lived in the Augustinian House of Santa Maria in Rome. In Easter 1837 he had a chance meeting on the steps of the Augustinian church of Santa Maria del Popolo with Benedictine William Bernard Ullathorne, Vicar General of New Holland (Australia). Ullathorne was in Rome recruiting priests for Australia, and Goold was convinced by Ullathorne to commit himself to seven years of missionary work in Australia, subject to his order's approval.

In 1838, Father Goold arrived in Australia aboard the Upton Castle. Also on board were Governor and Lady Gipps. Goold worked initially with Archbishop John Bede Polding in Sydney, becoming parish priest at Campbelltown, New South Wales, where in 1841, he built, St John's Church in 1841. He spent a considerable amount of his time traveling through the country on horseback.

Bishop and Archbishop

Pope Pius IX appointed him Bishop of Melbourne, and he was consecrated bishop by John Bede Polding on 6 August 1848, (the feast of the Transfiguration) in old St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney. He transferred to Melbourne, traveling overland in 19 days, being installed on 8 October 1848 in his first Cathedral, St Francis Church in Lonsdale Street. Goold was only the second Roman Catholic bishop in Australia. He arrived in his new town to find only two Catholic church buildings, four priests in the diocese, no religious sisters or brothers, and a population around 11,000. After negotiations begun in 1848, five acres of land on Eastern Hill were finally granted by the crown on 1 April 1851 and shortly afterwards became the site of St Patrick's cathedral and the bishop's palace. The discovery of gold in this year enormously increased the population of Melbourne, and it was realised that the church of St Patrick that had been begun would be inadequate. It was decided to build a great cathedral – St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. In 1858 William Wardell, then government architect, was asked to draw up the plans, and the first stone of the new building was laid in December 1858. For the remainder of Goold's life he was much occupied with the raising of funds for the cathedral. Within thirteen years of arriving in Melbourne, the capable and determined Goold had increased the number of church buildings in Melbourne to 64.

As an Irishman of his times and immediate history, Goold had experienced the consequences of sectarianism, and in Australia disputed the title of "Bishop of Melbourne" with the then Anglican bishop of Melbourne, Dr Charles Perry. Under Australian law (unlike British law at the time) Goold was found to have equal right to the title.

Goold was an expansionist. He attempted to persuade his home Irish province of the Augustinians to establish a seminary and novitiate in Melbourne. Though the Irish province agreed to Goold's requests in principle, the plan did not come to fruition in his lifetime. The first Australian Augustinian was not ordained until 1940, and the Australian Province was not formally established as separate from its Irish founding province until 1952.

The Irish province was already sending missionaries to the US, India and England, and did not then consider an Australian foundation viable. Nevertheless, Goold commenced the building of Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral on 8 December 1858. In order to expand Catholic education, in 1857 Bishop Goold succeeded in bringing the Mercy Sisters from Perth into the diocese. He also introduced the Irish Christian Brothers to Melbourne in 1867. Other congregations he brought to the diocese include the Jesuits, and the Faithful Companions of Jesus. Goold engaged enthusiastically in Australian public debate over the issue of State Aid for Catholic education, and was politically pro-active in opposing what he referred to as the 'godless compulsory education' of state schools.

From late 1869 to 1870 Goold attended the First Vatican Council in Rome, where he also met with three other Augustinian and Irish bishops. On 10 May 1874, while still in Rome, Goold was made Archbishop of Melbourne. Towards the end of his life his health began to suffer but it was difficult to persuade him to relax from his duties.

Archbishop Goold died at Melbourne on 11 June 1886 and was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne.

References

1. ^ Vodola. "Situating Goold Pastor and Cultural Patron". The Invention of Melbourne. p. 17.
2. ^ Grigsby, J. R. J. (1972). "Goold, James Alipius (1812–1886)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 4. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
3. Arneil. Out Where the Dead Men Lie. p. 34.
4. ^ Phelan, Patrick. "Melbourne." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 29 May 2021 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
5. "Early history", St Francis’ Church, Melbourne
6. Arneil. Out Where the Dead Men Lie. p. 37.
7. Under British law at the time, no Roman Catholic Bishop was permitted to be named bishop of a diocese with the same name as an Anglican diocese (e.g. the Catholic bishop of Westminster was effectively the Catholic Bishop of London, but not permitted to be called so).

Bibliography

• Anderson, Jaynie; Vodola, Max; Carmody, Shane, eds. (2019). The Invention of Melbourne: A Baroque Archbishop and a Gothic Architect. Carlton, Victoria: The Miegunyah Press. p. 319. ISBN 978-0-522-87563-8.
• Arneil, Stan (1992). "Out Where the Dead Men Lie". The Augustinians in Australia 1838–1992. Brookvale: Augustinian Press. ISBN 0-949826-03-0.
• Hogan, J. F. (1886). A Biographical Sketch of the Late Most Rev. James Alipius Goold. Melbourne, Australia: Alex McKinley & Co. p. 22.
• Martin O.S.A, Rev. F. X. (1986). A Great Battle Bishop James A. Goold of Melbourne (1848–64) and the State Aid for Religion Controversy. Ireland and Irish- Australia: studies in cultural and political history. London: Croom Helm.
• O'Farrell, Patrick (1977). The Catholic Church and community in Australia. West Melbourne, Victoria: Thomas Nelson (Australia). p. 463. ISBN 0-17-005129-3.
• Serle, Percival (1949). "Goold, James Alipius". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.

External links

• St Patrick's Cathedral website
• James Goold on Catholic hierarchy.org

• 1812 births
• 1886 deaths
• Christian clergy from Cork (city)
• Augustinian friars
• Roman Catholic archbishops of Melbourne
• Irish expatriate Roman Catholic archbishops
• Irish emigrants to colonial Australia
• 19th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Australia
• Burials at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne
• Settlers of Melbourne
• Roman Catholic bishops of Melbourne