By Dr Donna Bailey

“On the predella stand two angels, one in an attitude of supplication, the other in that of adoration. They each hold a branch candlestick and are turned towards the altar.”

The Angels were thus described by an Advocate correspondent of June 1890 who offered a short account of Bishop Reville’s recent fourteen-month sojourn to Ireland and Europe, and which specifically listed the several devotional items that he had returned with, that then adorned the St Kilian’s Pro Cathedral sanctuary. They included a Dublin crafted, polished brass, three-tier candelabrum that could ‘receive’ 50 candles, ‘two [German made], massive brass candlesticks, … furnished with pure wax candles’ that could ‘place the light ten feet high’, a life-sized statue of the Virgin Mary and two smaller angelic figures that faced each side of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel. The statuary, wrote the correspondent, came from ‘the first house in Munich.’ (Our preliminary research on the surviving statuary indicates that they may have been made by Mayer & Co. of Munich).

The Angels, guardians of the St Kilian’s altar, stayed in situ until, we understand, circa 1982, when they were removed so that considerable renovations of the church could begin. Beautifully sculpted, and quite pleasing to the eye, they would likely have been admired by generations of Catholics for just short of a century.

Most readers would know that the Vahland designed church, said to be the largest timber church in Australia, was constructed as a temporary church, or Pro Cathedral, in 1887, replacing an earlier stone church (circa 1857-1887). Some of the earliest furnishings have survived and the Shrine and the Virgin Mary statue remain, whilst the whereabouts of the candelabrum are unknown.

Although there are those who see an historic, devotional ideology clashing with current theology, it nevertheless seemed important to follow up on a strong lead of where the angels may have spent their last 30-40 years.

Indications are that during the early 1980s the Angels were placed in the brick stables behind the presbytery and were left there, ‘lying in the straw’ for several years before disappearing. No record was ever made of their quiet exit from the parish, and if a fuss was made, the current archivist does not know about it.

In 2015 we heard that they were residing in a private home, caretakers still, but caretakers of a studio, or a home library, rather than an altar. And so began the quest to have them returned to their rightful home. The privacy of those who assisted in locating them, as well as the family who cared for the Angels must be respected, and thus the story of their re-discovery, ends here.

On 8 August this year, the Angels returned to the parish of St Kilian just as quietly as they had left.

Fr Junray Rayna says of their return,

“Our Parish is excited to have such valuable pieces of the St Kilian’s Church history returned. We thank those who have worked to locate and return the Angels. We will look at where best to place the Angels within the Church over the coming months.”

Thankfully, the Angels have not been restored; as one friend of the diocese has noted, ‘the wrong person could have made a real mess of them.’ They are now a bit worse for wear, but authentic in their Gothic style appearance and a reminder of a very special time in our own Catholic story. In their infancy they occupied what was then a newly constructed Pro Cathedral and, at the helm, of the Church, a recently ordained bishop. The Angles were devoted upon by a congregation of the predominantly Irish faithful and their provenance is strongly attached to the Second Bishop of Sandhurst, Stephen Reville.

Bendigo historian, Dr Charles Fahey, a contributor to the forthcoming ‘Faith on the Goldfields’ publication, writes that in the nineteenth century, most Catholics in the Sandhurst Diocese were Irish migrants who were influenced by Ireland’s ‘Devotional Revolution’. They brought with them a renewed post famine commitment to practising Catholicism and attending Mass.

‘The Devotional Revolution’ was first coined by Irish history scholar, Emmet Larkin in his 1972 article, ‘The Devotional Revolution in Ireland, 1850-1875’ to describe the post-famine socio-political context which led the Irish to become one of the most practising Catholic peoples in Europe in a single generation.

This revolution saw the Irish abandon pre-famine modes of devotion — often centred around kin-groups, lay-controlled and with semi-pagan practices — replaced with more formal religious participation in line with the practices of the Catholic Church in Rome. An important feature of this revolution was the building of new churches and commissioning of devotional iconography to adorn these buildings. This Church building continued beyond the Irish sea. Between 1875 and 1925, Northern Victoria saw extensive construction of Churches as Irish migrant families selected land and built parish communities.

Note: As a result of his 1889-1890 journey, Bishop Reville not only brought back the beautiful devotional items described in this story. A man strongly committed to Catholic education, he arrived at Sandhurst in March 1890 having secured the services of several Irish priests, and with two communities of Mercy Sisters. The Mercy Sisters went on to establish convents and run Catholic schools at Bendigo and Yarrawonga. 

Dr Donna Bailey is the Diocesan Archivist. 

The Angels stand guarding the St Kilian's Altar.  

Quarter plate Albumen print:  August 25, 1894 
Sandhurst Diocesan Archive Collection.