As WA Catholics were recently asked one last time to donate to “conserve and complete” the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, otherwise known as St Mary’s, Anthony Barich reflects on one little-known individual who played a major but, some say, largely under-appreciated, role.
By Anthony Barich
Joseph Ascione could well be one of the biggest unsung heroes involved in the 144-year story of the construction of St Mary’s Cathedral here in Perth.
Ascione – mason, architect, builder, bricklayer, stonemason and Benedictine aspirant – arrived in WA aged 30 in 1849 with Bishop Joseph Benedict Serra’s party on the Ferrolana.
He was involved in several of the Spanish prelate’s building projects including the church and school in Fremantle – the first St Patrick’s – the Bishop’s Palace and the Benedictine Monastery in Subiaco.
Not much of the original monastery remains on Barrett Street in Wembley, where the Benedictine monks met in 1859 to decide whether to stay in Perth under Benedictine Bishop Serra or in New Norcia with Bishop Rosendo Salvado.
Almost to a man, they decided to move north and base themselves at the monastic town of New Norcia.
It has sometimes been said that Benedictine monks in the early years of the Church in Perth worked on some aspects of the construction of St Mary’s but, as current Cathedral Dean Monsignor Thomas McDonald noted recently, the fact that the Benedictines left Perth in the year before construction began indicates that this is almost certainly not the case.
Other suggestions have been made that the cathedral was influenced by the Anglican gothic Cathedral of St Mary in Salisbury in England.
Although the two structures look eerily similar in some regards, there is no historical evidence of such a link that Perth’s archdiocesan archives headed by Sr Frances Stibi PBVM have been able to discover.
It has also been suggested that the eminent English architect August Pugin may have been the designer of St Mary’s Cathedral. This has been refuted on the grounds that Pugin died in 1853 – over a decade before the cathedral was built, and was extremely unlikely to have made any contribution. There is also no evidence of any Pugin link or influence.
In fact Ascione was, according to Martin Griver (then the administrator but not yet bishop), architect of the design for the original St Mary’s. Born in a village at the base of Mount Vesuvius near Naples in Italy, he lived with the monks at Subiaco and was architect and supervisor of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Victoria Square.
From 1862-1864 he is recorded as employing five ticket of leave men and as having donated his labour to the value of 100 Pounds to the cathedral fund. He is mentioned often in letters the Benedictine monks wrote to each other which also often mentioned progress reports and gossip to do with the Cathedral.
This is highlighted in a letter of recommendation written on February 21, 1865 by Father Martin Griver, later Bishop of Perth, to Archbishop James Alipius Goold, of Melbourne, an Augustinian priest, referring to the great contribution “Brother Joseph” had made to the Cathedral’s construction.
Goold eventually became the Metropolitan for Perth.
“He has been a mason from his youth, and given proofs of his great skill and capabilities; for he has been the only architect or director of the building… which every intelligent person says is a work of great merit,” Father Griver says. “The building committee recognises an outstanding debt to him.”
As St Mary’s edges closer and closer to its final completion, one which incorporates significant parts of Joseph Ascione’s design and work, it is worth remembering that not only St Mary’s Cathedral but the great cathedrals of Europe were built not just by great wealth, but by simple faith – and the sweat and labour of countless unknown ordinary men and women of faith and talent – like Joseph Ascione.