St Bede's College, Christchurch

St. Bede

The College bears the name of The Venerable Bede (AD 673-735) an English Benedictine Monk, Scholar, and Saint. Widely regarded as the Father of English History, Bede is most famous for his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, recognized as the first ecclesiastical history of Britain. During his time, Bede was regarded as the finest scholar in Europe. His shrine is at Jarrow, England.

Philosophy and Marist Tradition

The College is renowned for its high academic standards, proud sporting heritage and the distinctive educational philosophy of the Marist tradition. From its beginnings, St. Bede's College has taught its students by observing a tradition that combines Marian and apostolic elements. For the most part of the previous century, the College had residential Marist Priests and Brothers as teaching staff. There is still a significant Marist presence at the College.

The College Mission is To help each boy develop fully by Faith and by Works.

History

The Society of Mary (Marists) is a Religious congregation founded in 1816 in Lyon, France at the time of the French Revolution by Father Jean-Claude Colin (1790–1875) and twelve colleagues, including Marcellin Joseph Benoît Champagnat, future Founder of the Marist Brothers, and Father (later Bishop) Jean Baptiste François Pompallier, first bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand.

The canonical approbation of the Society of Mary was given by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836. Fr Jean-Claude Colin had a close association with Pompallier who accompanied the French Marist Missionaries to New Zealand. The Society of Mary became involved in missionary work and teaching, work that was very similar to the missions of the Jesuits, but which had a distinctive Marian approach. The first recorded Catholic school in New Zealand was established in Auckland in 1841 by Fr. Petitjean, SM (Society of Mary).

Before 1877, education in New Zealand was a provincial jurisdiction, with many schools being established by churches or private funding. With the Education Act 1877, the New Zealand Government centralised control through twelve regional education boards to introduce free, compulsory and secular education. Schools intending to teach religious instruction could not receive Government assistance. The Society of Mary continued to build the foundations for a Catholic System of Education, sourcing religious teachers from Ireland, Europe and Australia. In 1885, the Society of Mary established St. Patrick's College in Cambridge Terrace, Wellington. St. Patrick's College was the first Catholic College for Boys in New Zealand.

St. Bede's College, Christchurch was established in 1911 at the request of Bishop John Joseph Grimes S.M., and the first Catholic Bishop of Christchurch. The Society owned St. Bede's College. The school was originally located along Ferry Road but it outgrew its facilities. The college had the option of purchasing the current site or that of St. Andrew's College, Christchurch in Merivale. Some say that the choice made was a fine decision because due to the land being cheaper, the college was able to build magnificent stone buildings to accommodate the monks and to accommodate lessons. The chapel was originally used as a gym but with the building of Chanel Hall, it became obsolete and so was converted to a chapel. The chapel contains the Board of Honour, honouring Bedeans who fought and died for their country in both world wars.

The College was moved in 1920 to its present site on 220,000 square meters of fields and trees at the northern entrance to the city. The original buildings of St. Bede's were magnificent in old design but unfortunately, most of them had to be demolished in 1981 due to new earthquake safety requirements. However the Chapel and half of Durham remain standing. Over the years, buildings have continued to be added to the College, including the Alistair Macdonald Centre for the Performing Arts, Jarrow (a senior boarding dorm) as well as a new gymnasium. The chapel is described as the heart of the school. In addition to the surface buildings, the school has a number of tunnels and bomb shelters under the school, built for evacuation purposes.

The House System

A House system was instituted at St. Bede's College, with every student allocated to a House. The House system has several functions including administrative. Each House is named for a distinguished person associated with the College and its name. There are five Houses. These are:

Boarding Houses

The Boarding Houses are for boarding pupils and are located on the College grounds. These are:

Notable alumni

St. Bede's College Old Boys are notably represented in the New Zealand Parliament in the House of Representatives. They accounted for the greatest number of alumni of any New Zealand College to sit in the Legislature of New Zealand's 47th, 48th, 49th, 50th and 51st New Zealand Parliaments. In the 51st Parliament, the National-led Government includes three Ministers of the Crown who are St. Bede's College Old Boys:

The opposition is represented with the former cabinet ministers:

Other distinguished Old Bedeans include:

Four Bishops of Christchurch (Brian Ashby, Basil Meeking, John Cunneen and Barry Jones) and more than 180 priests attended St Bede's.

Associations

St. Bede's retains a special tradition of academic, cultural and sporting fixtures with St. Patrick's College, Wellington and St. Patrick's College, Silverstream. St Bede's played St Pat's Town in rugby from the 1920s until the early 1970s when it was dropped due to financial reasons. This was for the Holley Shield and the series between the two colleges stood at St Bede's 24, St Pat's Town 20, with one draw. The game against Silverstream had not been played since the Second World War until it was revived in the 1990s. Today, all three Colleges are part of the legacy of the Society of Mary in New Zealand.

Effects from Canterbury quakes

As a result of the severe 2011 Canterbury earthquake on February 22, the school was fortunately spared, although the school was shut until March 14 to undergo building inspections. Sister school Marian College in Shirley, Christchurch was not so fortunate, being severely damaged. Marian College is an all-girls school, and it was decided to share facilities with St. Bedes. The boys from St. Bedes attended school using a "morning timetable" up until 13:00, with the girls continuing on in the afternoon and evening. The 100th year anniversary of St. Bedes College, due to take place at the end of May 2011, was also postponed as a result of the earthquake. This ended up taking place a year later in May 2012. The Grimes boarding house was also deemed unsafe due to quake damage resulting in the year ten and twelves to relocate to Durham. Grimes was demolished in early 2013 along with the Chapel of St Bede, previously the only original building on the site. The Chanel hall was demolished at the end of 2013. Currently, plans for a replacement hall are unknown, and the school is using the gym for Masses, liturgies and assemblies