First Catholic Church Opened In 1864

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30452, 28 May 1964, Page 16

First Catholic Church Opened In 1864

The centenary of the opening of the first Roman Catholic church on the Canterbury plains will be observed at the Cathedral of the Blesed Sacrament in Barbadoes street next Sunday. All Masses celebrated in the Cathedral will be offered in thanksgiving. There will also be a social function in the evening in St. Patrick’s hall at which parishioners.will present a chalice to the Cathedral to mark the centenary. An illustrated talk on the early history of the parish will be given. The first church, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, was opened on May 29, 1864, by Bishop Viard, then the Roman Catholic Bishop of Wellington It was built on the site of the present Cathedral, in Barbadoes street. The property in Barbadoes street was given by the Provincial Council. Two French priests of the Society of Mary, Fathers Seon and Chataigner, erected a small building there in 1860, within the required 14 days’ time. That year a meeting was

held in the Oxford Hotel to discuss the building of a church. About 60 people attended.

The church was designed by Benjamin Mountfort, the architect who was responsible for many of Canterbury’s finest buildings, including the Christchurch Cathedral, the hall of the Provincial Council Chambers, the Sign of the Takahe, and the University Hall. The walls of the church were built of red stone, lined inside with brick, to a height of six feet, and then timbered. Clay tiles manufactured locally were used on the roof. The finished building was 75 feet long and 40 feet wide. Its simple, pleasing lines can be seen in the picture, which was taken from an old lithograph. The first convent

of the Mission Sisters is shown to the left of the church, and on the other side are the original priests’ house and St. Leo’s boys’ school. The cost of building the church was about £2OOO. A pound for pound subsidy was granted by the Provincial Government, and both Catholics and non-Catholics made donations.

Eventually it was enlarged to hold about 500 people. In 1887 the Christchurch Diocese was formed, and Dr. J. J. Grimes, who came to Christchurch in 1888, was appointed as the first Bishop. H -1 established the church as his Pro-Cathedral, but already had plans to build a proper cathedral. In the middle of 1900 Mr A. Swanston, a Christchurch

builder and contractor, shifted the pro-cathedral, as it now was, to another site, to make room for a new building. Messrs Collins and Harman were the architects who planned the move. It was possibly the biggest removal job that had ever been undertaken in the country. Indeed, many doubted whether the task could be performed, but Bishop Grimes, who had seen similar projects in America, persisted.

Even after everything movable had been shifted out, and the tiles on the roof removed, the church weighed 250 tons. It was raised 18 inches, and sleepers and joists put underneath. Kauri skids, greased with soap and tallow, were placed under the

building’s plates. At the ends of wire ropes three traction engines hauled it, like a huge sleigh, smoothly and easily to its new site, facing Ferry road. Used As Classroom i When the Cathedral of the. ‘Blessed Sacrament, built in | the Neo-Renaissance style, was opened in 1905, the old church was converted into a classroom. It was used as such for many decades until it was finally demolished. Links with the past, however, were preserved by incorporating in the catehdral stained glass windows from the sanctuary of the old church, and six brass candlesticks from the main altar, believed to have been a gift from Father Chataigner himself, are still in use.