Location Melbourne Denomination Roman Catholic Founded 1841 Opened 1845 | Country Australia Website stfrancismelbourne.com Completed 1845 Phone +61 3 9663 2495 | |
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Address 326 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia Diocese Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne Similar St Patrick's Cathedral - Melbourne, St Michael's Uniting C, St Paul's Cathedral - Melbourne, Scots' Church - Melbourne, St Peter Julian's Church - S | ||
St Francis' Church is the oldest Catholic church in Victoria, Australia. Located on the corner of Lonsdale Street and Elizabeth Street, the main body of the church (with various later additions) is one of a very few buildings in central Melbourne which predates the Gold Rush of 1851.
History
The church's foundation stone was laid on 4 October 1841, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, to whom the church is dedicated. It was commissioned by Fr Patrick Geoghegan, the first Catholic priest in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, which became the separate state of Victoria in 1851. The first mass was held in the completed nave on 22 May 1842 and the completed church blessed on 23 October 1845, though the elegant cedar ceiling was not installed until 1850. In 1848, St Francis' became the cathedral church of the first Catholic Bishop of Melbourne, James Goold, and continued as a cathedral until 1868, when the diocesan seat was moved to the still unfinished St Patrick's Cathedral (which was not formally consecrated until 1897). The ornate Ladye Chapel on the west side was designed by George and Schneider and constructed in 1856-58, with decoration by Le Gould and Souter. A new sanctuary designed by Reed and Barnes was added in 1878-9 in the Renaissance style. The front porch was added in 1956, incorporating the roof of a smaller porch added in the 1850s.
Centrally located in the Melbourne's CBD, St Francis' has never lost its place as one of the city's most popular and widely used churches, and today is the busiest church in Australia, with more than 10,000 worshippers attending each week. Since 1929, it has been a centre of Eucharistic Life in the care of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.
The church is listed with Victorian Heritage Register, the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and the Australian Heritage Commission. Although there have been many changes made to the building, including the erection of a new tower, a gift from the Grollo family, to house the original 1853 bell imported from Dublin, the church remains essentially as it was designed by Samuel Jackson.