St. Patrick’s Seminary (now a business/hospitality school)

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HISTORY OF ST PATRICK’S SEMINARY

St. Patrick’s Seminary has stood in its commanding position overlooking the Manly and its surrounds for over a century, attracting the eye and curiosity of both locals and visitors.

In 1859 the Catholic Church was granted 60 acres of land on North Head Reserve to build a Catholic residence.  For almost 30 years this land stood vacant until it caught the imagination of Archbishop Moran upon his arrival to Australia in 1884. 
“During an excursion around Sydney Harbour….. the church lands were pointed out to His Grace, probably with a degree of humour by those who regarded the uninspiring hillside an impossible legacy.  But Dr Moran saw further than the wilderness of rock and the wild riot of tea-tree scrub.  A vision came over all, a dream of a college to be a creation of delicately worked freestone, crowned with a massive Norman tower, raised high above the tossing sea.” (PM Haydon – Cradle Days of Manly.)

Construction of the College began in June 1885 with 325 men on the payroll and occupied a little over three years.  Stone was initially quarried from North Head with the finer stone coming from Pyrmont by boat.  The extensive timbers are predominantly Kauri Pine and Australian Cedar.  Gothic in Style with Spanish flavour, the College at four storeys high with a six level central bell tower covers 60,000 square feet.

At the opening of the college on the 23rd January 1889, Cardinal Moran responded to early criticism of its grandiosity – “Some may think that a seminary on so large a plot is not required. But I look to the future. In erecting this seminary, I shall meet the want of all Australian dioceses…” Speakers vied with each other in lauding the Cardinal and praising the magnificent proportions of the building, which was said to be one of the finest edifices of its kind in the wold.

It has stood firm both as an Alma Mater for the priesthood and as a centre for great religious gatherings and celebrations through wars and depressions.  The Cardinal Cerretti Chapel was built in the difficult year 1934; there were 127 trainees in 1942 when the building was blacked out in case of air raids. It saw the introduction of electricity, of radio, of television and great social changes.

Many outstanding and famous Church leaders – too numerous to name – have held appointments at St. Patrick’s and greatly influenced those who trained there.  Records show that at the time of the Centenary, 1714 men had been ordained and gone forth from the college.  These include Cardinals Gilroy, Freeman, Cassidy and Clancy and 41 Bishops.

The contribution of St Patrick’s through its Alumni, has made to religious life and faith, to education, to caring for the needy, to the development of a social conscience and to the general community welfare cannot be measured.  It must be forever remembered.

In November 1995, The Australian Tourism Group and the Roman Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Sydney, undertook a major refurbishment of St Patrick’s College to transform it into the International College of Management, Sydney.

The College now houses over 800 students from 65 countries and continues the traditions of striving for excellence and supporting the local community.

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