IN ST MARY'S, W. MELBOURNE

St Mary Star of the Sea is one of the most beautiful and historically significant churches in Australia. The foundation stone of St Mary's was laid in 1882 and the building was completed by 1900. Since 2002 restoration has been ongoing to restore the church to its original splendor. Built with seating for over 1,200 people, it has been described as the largest parish church in Melbourne, in Victoria, or even in Australia.

The church is quite splendid and unusually for churches in Australia, contains a grave, that of Monsignor Matthew Carey (1848-1928). He was a man of extraordinary vision and competence. He was given the distinguished title of Monsignor and was appointed as Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1926 by Archbishop Mannix. He was appointed to the parish of West Melbourne in 1898. He oversaw the final stages of construction of the splendid church of St Mary Star of the Sea. He was no doubt involved with the installation of the significant three-manual Fincham organ in the west gallery, as he was very musical and encouraged fine performances of religious music in churches.

This post is part of the Taphophile Tragics meme,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme.