Rosendo Salvado

Religion & Life Assessment 2017

Rosendo Salvado was a Spanish Benedictine monk, missionary and author. He was the son of Peter Salvado and his wife Francisca Rotea, born on the 1st March 1814, in Tui, Spain. The Salvado was a famously musical family. Wealth favoured Salvado's musical genius, but he pledged his talent to a higher cause. At the age of 15, he entered the Benedictine Abbey of San Martin at Compostela. He took his final vows in 1832. Three years later, he was forced to flee to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, after the Anti-Catholic government of Isabella II decreed the closing of all monasteries as a result of the First Carlist War. Salvado was later received into the Abbey of Trinità della Cava, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1839. Salvado was an important figure in Australian religious history through his role in showing the Catholic virtue of caring for disadvantaged, by increasing the welfare of the Indigenous people.

Christianity came to Australia with the First Fleet in 1788. The Roman Catholic Church had been declared illegal in England, and therefore the invading country was typically Anglican. Most of the Catholics that came to Australia were Irish convicts, and it wasn’t until 1830 that free-settler Catholics joined them. The convicts waited until year 1803, when Father Dixon conducted the first official Catholic mass in Australia. In 1820, British authorities allowed two Catholic chaplains to arrive in Australia. Four years later, an Anglican archdeaconry was established in New South Wales, and in 1829, the Catholic Relief Act gave Catholic convict’s an opportunity to play their part in shaping a new nation. By 1836, the major British denominations were all present. The real period of Anglican growth occurred after the appointment of the first Bishop of Australia, William Grant Broughton, in 1836. Following his petitions to Rome, between 1842 and 1848, the Holy See created a diocese in Hobart, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne, Maitland and Port Victoria, South Australia.

In 1846, Rosendo Salvado arrived in the Swan River Colony, Australia, accompanied by Joseph Serra. Most Catholics until now had been working-class Irish convicts. In 1848, James Alipius Gould, the first bishop of Melbourne, became the first Irish bishop of the period. The next year, Salvado was consecrated by Cardinal Fransoni. In the decade following the discovery of gold in 1851, half a million people immigrated to Australia including 84,000 from Ireland. The definition of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 promoted faith in the supernatural, the virtue of prayer, the hope of an afterlife and the value of purity. By 1857, the numbers of clergy in Australia had risen to 144 of whom 129 were Irish. The other fifteen were made up of five English, with a few of French Marists, German Jesuits and Spanish Benedictines. English Benedictine control gradually weakened with the appointment of a succession of Irish Bishops. In 1864, The Syllabus of Errors became a direct challenge to the liberal society, and the definition of Infallibility in 1870 served to strengthen immeasurably the power of the papacy itself.

In 1846, the same year of their arrival, Salvado and Serra successfully made peaceful contact with the Aboriginal People. They were welcomed into the tribe and for three months resided and wandered with them over the Victoria Plains. During this time, they grasped a firm understanding of the Aboriginal People, including their way of life and thinking. Characteristic of his efforts was his endurance, courage and resourcefulness. On one occasion he walked 130 kilometres to Perth, on his own, to ask Bishop Brady for money for the mission. Upon being turned down, Salvado organised and performed a piano recital in Perth's Courthouse to raise funds. Salvado’s mission became known as New Norcia. His aim was to construct a self-supporting mission village and to carry out his plan for the welfare of the Aboriginal People. He wished to improve their lives, as their traditional way of life was becoming unavailable. In 1859, Salvado successfully had the mission decreed independent from the Diocese of Perth, who took much of the Mission's income. At the same time, he was appointed the Sole Superior of the New Norcia Mission. The Mission became a Monastery and men were trained locally. Salvado set about building New Norcia into an independent settlement with the building of a stone chapel. Cottages, storehouses, a blacksmith's shop and flourmill were built in addition to the Monastery. In 1865, Salvado became the owner of the Mission and its property, including all freehold and leasehold land. The Mission eventually housed a school, orphanage, hospital, library and homes for a number of Aboriginal families. The Mission's industries spanned all spheres of agriculture. With the help of the Aboriginal People, Salvado seeded and harvested crops and made tracks to Bindoon and Perth. By 1876, he had pastoral leases totalling over 260,000 acres. Salvado became an expert surveyor and cartographer and recorded all water sources in the area, using their Aboriginal names. In 1898 under his instruction the Mission became known as “The Benedictine Community of New Norcia.” In 1898, he transferred ownership of all property and land from his own name to The Benedictine Community of New Norcia. On 30 November 1899, he departed for Rome where he appointed a new leader for the Mission and Monastery. Rosendo Salvado passed away in Rome on 29 December 1900.