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Caroline Chisholm
The Emigrants’ Friend
1808-1877
 Caroline Chisholm was born at Northampton, 30 May 1808, and died in London,
25 March 1877, and yet regarded Australia as her adopted land.
She eased the path of thousands of migrants in this their new homeland. Her
special concern for homeless girls and poor families during Australia’s
formative years caused her contemporaries to see her as ‘the indispensable
woman of the time’.
In Victoria her Shelter Sheds provided cheap and safe accommodation on
the road to the Castlemaine Goldfields.
Caroline Chisholm may be described as a Christian humanist. She was inspired
at once by the command ‘Love thy neighbour’ and the warm
human sympathy of her own nature. Her sense of the worth of every human
being prevented
any trace of condescension or discrimination in her work. Charity,
she said, should reach out to all creatures, ‘as long as they
bear the stamp of humanity.’
She felt her work had been
given her to do ‘by One who never allows his
servants to stand still
for want of materials’. To it she brought all her gifts of
heart and intellect, and earned the gratitude of the Australian people.
For thirty years she worked to assist single women and families to
migrate and settle in Australia. The idealistic and religious fervour
for which
she is now admired made her then a target for sectarian suspicion
which added
to the many difficulties she had to overcome.
She had to contend with the primitive conditions of a colonial
society and a bitter religious controversy. She was handicapped
by lack of
material resources,
but she had great personal assets. She had energy, human sympathy,
administrative ability of a high order, personal charm and dignity,
a husband unobtrusively
devoted to her work, and undying faith in the cause to which
she had so unselfishly put her hand.
Caroline Chisholm was a great pioneer, the greatest of women
pioneers in the history of Australia and yet she died in poverty
and obscurity. Return to Significant Early
Pioneers in the Church in Sydney
Significant Pioneers in the Archdiocese
of Sydney
(Main page)
See also: A timeline of Catholicism
in Sydney
| Foundation dates of Sydney Parishes
The Previous Archbishops of the Archdiocese of Sydney
The Predecessor Auxiliary and Co-adjutor Archbishops
of the Archdiocese of Sydney
- Charles Henry Davis OSB, 1848-1854. Also
Titular Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle.
- Joseph Higgins, 1889. (Appointed Bishop
of Rockhampton 1889).
- Michael Sheehan, Co-adjutor Archbishop
1922-1937.
- Eris Norman Michael O'Brien, 1948-1953.
(Appointed Bishop of Canberra-Goulburn 1953.)
- Patrick Francis Lyons, 1950-1956. (Appointed
Co-adjutor Bishop Sale 1956. Bishop 1957-1967.)
- James Patrick Carroll, 1954-1965.
Retired 1984. Died 1995.
- James Darcy Cardinal Freeman, 1957-1969
- Thomas William Muldoon, 1960-1986.
- Edward Francis Kelly MSC, 1969-1975.
(Appointed Bishop
of Toowoomba 1975.)
- Edward Bede Cardinal Clancy AC, 1973-1978.
(Appointed Archbishop
of Canberra-Goulburn, 1978-1983.)
- Patrick Laurence Murphy,
1977-1986. (Appointed Bishop
of Broken Bay 1986. Retired)
- Bede Vincent Heather,
1979-1986. (Appointed Bishop
of Parramatta 1986. Retired)
- John Edward Heaps, 1981-1992.
Retired 1992. Died 2004.
- Peter William Ingham, 1993-2001. (Appointed
Bishop of
Wollongong 2001.)
- Geoffrey James Robinson,
1984-2004. Retired.
- David Cremin, 1974-2005. Retired.
See also:
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