NEW MONASTERY PLANNED

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27750, 30 August 1955, Page 12

NEW MONASTERY PLANNED

REDEMPTORIST ORDER IN CHRISTCHURCH

LAND ACQUIRED IN NORTH BRIGHTON SUBDIVISION

The Redemptorist Fathers, who this year are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of their arrival in New Zealand, plan to build a memorial monastery and retreat house, dedicated to Our Mother of Perpetual Succour, in Bower avenue, North Brighton. The order, which was established in Christchurch in 1945, has a temporary monastery in Woolston. The seven members in Christchurch have launched a £60.000 building appeal directed to Roman Catholics in the Christchurch Diocese, and hope to lay the foundations next year. About 10 acres has been acquired for the order in the Sapio subdivision, Bower avenue, which was approved by the Christchurch City Council last night. An architect’s drawing shows the proposed building to be of two storeys in restrained contemporary style. It has not yet been decided whether construction will be in brick or a pink-tinted artificial stone, developed in the United States, which may be produced in Christchurch next year. An Early Showplace The Bower avenue property is occupied by an old 10-roomed wooden house, which is believed to have been built by a Mr Dixon as one of the early showplaces of Christchurch. The grounds, which are now a wilderness, are laid out with stoneflagged paths, fountains, and other formal decorations in the style of lateVictorian garden landscaping. Part of the house has been converted as a temporary church, where Mass is now celebrated each Sunday for North Brighton residents. The new monastery and retreat house will have some 40 monastic rooms for the retreatants and the community of the order. These, the com-,, mon rooms, cloisters, and chapels will be dedicated to the memory of those who contribute toward their construction. An attractive plaque has been designed to be attached, where practicable, to the unit of the building or item of equipment selected as a memorial.