Mary Help of Christians, Mother of the Southern Nation

Official Patronage of Australia · Sydney · 1844

A Church born in chains

The first Catholics in Australia did not arrive with power or freedom: they arrived in chains. The vast majority of convicts deported from Ireland and Great Britain from 1788 onward were poor Catholics. For years, the Protestant authorities in the colony prohibited the celebration of Mass and the presence of priests. In this climate of silent persecution, the faithful gathered in private homes to pray the Rosary together, entrusting all their protection to the intercession of Mary.

It was Father John Joseph Therry, Sydney's first Catholic chaplain, who laid the foundation stone of St. Mary's Chapel in November 1821, invoking the Virgin's patronage. For four years he was the only priest in the entire colony, and the Rosary was the thread that held the scattered community together.

The Synod of 1844: the first nation in the world

In September 1844, Archbishop John Bede Polding convened in Sydney the First Provincial Synod of Australasia. The bishops of Adelaide and Hobart met together with a total of thirty pioneering priests - almost half the clergy of the whole continent. Among its historical decisions, the Australian Church was formally placed under the patronage of the Virgin Mary with the title of Help of Christians (Christian Assistant). Rome confirmed this decision in 1852.

The data is unique: Australia was the first country of the world in adopting Mary Auxiliary as national patron, and the first nation to celebrate May 24 as a national feast of precept - before even the festivity extended to the rest of the universal Church.

The cathedral and the living legacy

Sydney Metropolitan Cathedral was consecrated under the same title, becoming the world's first mother cathedral dedicated to Mary Help of Christians. Today, every May 24, the Australian Church celebrates the Solemnity of Our Lady Help of Christians as its national feast day, in unbroken continuity with that vow of 1844.

In 1998, Pope John Paul II also recognized the title of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, an advocation that today gives name to the Personal Ordinary for the Anglicans received in full Catholic communion in Australia and Asia.

Oh Mary, Christian Helper,
You who accompanied in chains your children deported to the border of the earth,
It remains his protection and his hope.
Amen.