By Peter Rosengren
The almost complete skeletal remains of Perth’s first Bishop, John Brady, have been found intact in the French parish cemetery of Amelie-Les-Bains.
The result elated researchers from the Archdiocese of Perth, who had acknowledged before they left WA that after 140 years there might be nothing left due to high concentrations of mineral water below ground level in the spa town.
However, an excavation of the grave on Friday, 20 March revealed that Perth’s first Bishop, who died in Amelie-Les-Bain in 1872, had been buried in a zinc-lined coffin that was almost completely intact.
After removal of the coffin lid they found that only foot bones were missing.
Excavation team member Odhran O’Brien, who had been writing a daily blog on the effort to return the remains of the founding Bishop of Perth from France to the crypt specially reserved for Bishops of Perth under St Mary’s Cathedral, was delighted by the discovery.
“I am elated to write today’s blog,” he wrote on the excavation team’s daily website.
“The zinc lining had protected the remains inside and when the coffin was opened there was a complete skeleton inside! Further investigation of the coffin revealed that the Bishop was buried in a simple soutane without the adornments of a Bishop, namely a ring or pectoral cross. He was to the end a man concerned with far greater things than material possessions.”
A relative of Bishop Brady, Mrs Lorna Lavelle, and her husband Paddy were also present for the exhumation.
The Perth team also located the parochial death record of Bishop Brady, ordered to leave Perth by the Vatican in 1852, in diocesan records at Perpignan approximately 30km northeast of the town. The parish of Amelie-Les-Bains is part of the diocese of Perpignan.
St Mary’s Cathedral priest Fr Jean-Noel Marie, who accompanied the team as a translator, also discovered a nearby sign indicating that Bishop Brady was known to the-then Bishop of Perpignan and had assisted in the consecration of the local church when it was re-opened in 1871.
“This discovery suggests that Bishop Brady was not simply passing through Amelie-Les-Bains when he died. Further, it suggests that he continued the pastoral work of a Bishop until he died,” Mr O’Brien wrote.
The discovery of Bishop Brady’s remains and further information regarding his time in France after his departure from Perth can only contribute to filling out the picture of an often-sketchy figure who remains Perth’s most controversial Catholic Bishop. Almost nothing is known of his life before arriving in Perth or after leaving in apparent disgrace.
Opinion among historians of the Catholic Church in WA has been divided over Bishop Brady, much as his presence in Perth of the 1840 and 1850s divided the local Catholic population to the point where, on one occasion, fisticuffs broke out between groups of supporters of Bishop Brady and Bishop Serra in Perth streets.
He has alternately been seen as either a misunderstood and saintly figure or an inept and over-prickly personality who needlessly made enemies on all sides and divided the Church.
His banishing from Perth in 1852 after extensive financial problems developed and debts were accumulated has often led to a negative perception of the Bishop as a failure. However, much of the history to do with Bishop Brady was written or informed by those who prevailed in the dispute between himself and the coadjutor Bishop for Perth appointed by Rome, Joseph Serra, a Benedictine.
However, Mr O’Brien wrote on the team’s blog that the new information would help clarify some of the Brady picture.
“What has this week taught us about Brady? Foremost, there is a lot more to discover because Brady’s story has yet to be fully told,” he wrote.
“This project has brought to light important information that was previously unknown. It is time to rethink our current perception of Perth’s first Bishop. History is written by the winners and this is no less the case in Brady’s story.
“When Brady was asked to leave Perth, he lost control of the diocese he had founded and his battle to make it prosper. Yet, it should not be forgotten that Brady convinced the Vatican to make Perth a diocese.
“Brady is also central to important parts of Western Australia’s Catholic heritage such as the monastery of New Norcia.
“For these reasons, I have a suspicion that history has by no means finished with John Brady and much of his rich ‘his-story’ is yet to be revealed.”
The excavation team included Mr O’Brien, who is completing a Master’s Degree at the University of Notre Dame Australia’s Fremantle campus on early Perth Bishop Martin Griver, his archaeologist wife Jade O’Brien, archaeologist Fr Robert Cross, retired General Surgeon Dr Michael Shanahan and translator Fr Marie.
The excavation team’s blog can be found at: www.bishopbrady.com.
Out from history’s shadows …
The following words extracted from parochial records of the Diocese of Perpignan provide some of the few known details about Bishop Brady’s death:
“At 9 o’clock on the morning of 4th December 1871, in the presence of John Forné, Mayor and Registrar of the Municipality of Amélié-Les-Bains, District of Arles sur Tech, Department of Pyrénées-Orientalis, accompanied by Mr François Eichadow, Parish Priest, aged 50, and Mr Pierre Sévely, curate, aged 25, residing in this Municipality, who declared that Mr John Brady, Bishop of Perth (New Ireland), aged 71, of Cavan (Ireland) (no other information available), died yesterday at half past ten in the evening at the home of Naspleda, rue des Thermes, in this Municipality. We, the Officers of the Civil State, having confirmed the death, drew up this certificate and, after reading it, signed it.”
Translated by Emily Plank, 5.3.11.