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St Mary’s Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, currently Cardinal Archbishop George Pell. The cathedral is dedicated to “Mary, Help of Christians”, Patron of Australia. St Mary’s holds the title and dignity of a minor basilica, bestowed upon it by Pope Pius XI in 1930. It is the largest church in Australia, though not the highest. It is located on College Street in the heart of the City of Sydney where, despite the high rise development of the CBD, its imposing structure and twin spires make it a landmark from every direction. In 2008, St. Mary's Cathedral became the focus of World Youth Day 2008 and was visited by Pope Benedict XVI.
Background
Archbishop Polding laid the foundation stone for the present cathedral in 1868. It was to be a huge and ambitious structure with a wide nave and aisle and three towers. Unfortunately, Polding did not live to see it in use as he died in 1877. Five years later, on 8 September 1882, his successor, Archbishop Vaughan presided at the Dedication Mass. Archbishop Vaughan gave the peal of bells which were rung for the first time on that day. Vaughan was to die whilst in England in 1883.
But St Marys was still far from finished, the work proceeding under Cardinal Moran. In 1913 Archbishop Kelly laid the foundation stone for the Nave, which continued under the Architects Hennessy, Hennessy and Co. Kelly dedicated in 1928 the nave in time for the commencement of the XXIXth International Eucharistic Congress. A slight difference of colour and texture of the sandstone on the internal walls marks the division between the first and second stage of building.
The decoration and enrichment of the cathedral continued with the remains of Archbishop Vaughan being returned to Sydney and buried within the Chapel of the Irish Saints. The richly decorated Crypt which enshrines the bodies of many of the early priests and bishops was not completed until 1961 when it was dedicated by His Eminence Cardinal Gilroy.
For many years the two squared-off towers of the façade gave a disappointing appearance to an otherwise-elegant building. It was from time to time suggested pinnacles should be put up to match the central tower as it appeared plain that William Wardell’s proposed spires would never be built. But with the assistance of a grant from the Government to mark the new millennium, the spires were eventually built in 2000.
Architecture
Plan
St Mary’s Cathedral is unusual among the world’s large cathedrals in that, because of its size, the plan of the city around it and the fall of the land, it is orientated in a North/South direction rather than the usual East/West. The liturgical East End is at the North and the West Front is to the South. See Cathedral architecture of Western Europe
The plan of the cathedral is a conventional English cathedral plan, cruciform in shape, with a tower over the crossing of the nave and transepts, and twin towers at the West Front (in this case, the South.) The chancel is square-ended, like the chancels of Lincoln, York and several other English cathedrals. There are three processional doors in the South with additional entrances conveniently placed in the transept facades so that they lead from Hyde Park and from the Presbytery buildings and school adjacent the cathedral.
Style
The architecture is typical of the Gothic Revival of the 19th century, inspired by the journals of the Cambridge Camden Society, the writings of John Ruskin and the architecture of Augustus Welby Pugin. At the time that the foundation stone was laid, the architect Edmund Blacket had just completed Sydney’s very much smaller Anglican Cathedral in the Perpendicular Gothic style and the Main Building of Sydney University. Blacket was an architect whose competence and flair was extraordinary. It must have been inspiring to Polding to see what was possible, within the burgeoning Sydney Town. St Mary's, when William Wardell's plan was realised, was to be a much larger, more imposing and more sombre structure than the pretty little St. Andrew's, and because of its fortuitous siting, still dominates many views of the city, despite the high-rise buildings.
The style of the cathedral is Geometric Decorated Gothic, the archaeological antecedent being the ecclesiastical architecture of late 13th century England. It is, in fact, based fairly closely on the style of Lincoln Cathedral, the tracery of the huge chancel window being almost a replica of that at Lincoln.