SENIOR BISHOP.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 133, 18 March 1931, Page 6

SENIOR BISHOP.

ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD. HIS 57th) ANNIVERSARY. (Special to "The Guardian.") CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. - Yesterday, enjoying a picnic at Kairaki with the boys of St. Bede's College, the Most Rew Francis Redwood, S.M., D.T3.. Archbishop of Wellington and Metropolitan of New Zealand, cele-brated-the" fifty-seventh anniversary of his elevation to the episcopate. On St. Patrick's Day, 1874, following the service of consecration in London, he was the youngest bishop in the Catholic Church. Now, he hold's in a hale, virile and highly intellectual old age the distinction of being, for length of episcopal days, the senior bishop of that Church. On April 8 he will be ninetyrtwo years of age. Archbishop Redwood has had a distinguished career and, when, in •1924, he celebrated his episcopal golden jubilee. Several bishops from Australia travelled to New Zealand to be with him on the occasion while messages, including one from the Pope, came to him from all parts of the world. He wanted quiet yesterday, however, and spent the dav at Kairaki Beach, where the boarders'of St Bede's College were holding their annuol outing. It was a quiet day, enjoyed in beautiful surroundings, and his Grace declined to have it spoiled by interviewers or photographers. So' he had his day in quiet and returned to the city in time only to have dinner and attend the St. Patrick's concert in the evening. .Archbishop Redwood is an Englishman by birth, having been born in Staffordshire in 1839, but his parents brought him to New Zealand when he was three years of age. He was the first student from this Dominion to enter the Catholic priesthood, and the years have brought to' him and his adopted country much honour. He received "his early education from the Rev. Father Garin-at Nelson, and it was owing to that. earnest priest's inspiration that he went, in 1854, to France and entered the Marist College of St. diamond Loiret, where lie won distinction as a scholar. Later, after several years at the College of Mouth el, in Southern France; he went to Ireland, where he taught classics in St. Mary's College until his ordination, in 1865'. For a time he was Professor of Dogmatic Theology in Dublin. In his thirty-fifth year Dr. Redwood was called to the episcopate and consecrated by his Eminence the late Cardinal Manning, then Archbishop, in the church of the Marist Fathers. St. Anne's, Spitalfields. London, on March 17, 1874, and appointed Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand. His diocese extended from Wairoa and New Plymouth in the north to the Waitaki River in the south, including the present diocese of Christchurch. Thirteen years later—l 3 years of devoted service—he was created Archbishop of Papal Brief and then constituted Metropolitan of New Zealand. Archbishop Redwood has been one of the strongest figures in the history of the Catholic Church in New Zealand. His personality, no less than his many writings and eloquent preaching, have made him a beloved and respected figure, and to him yesterday went out the admiration and fervent good wishes of all his people. Archbishop Redwood will spend several days in Christchurch before returning to Wellington.