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Campus chapel standing strong after 100 years

Australian Catholic University’s Strathfield Campus has celebrated the 100^th anniversary of its award-winning Italianate-Romanesque chapel this week.

The centenary celebrations paid tribute to the Christian Brothers whose commitment to moulding the minds and hearts of future teachers, both professed religious and lay, shaped the foundations of the campus.

Completed in 1925, the Barron Memorial Chapel was named in honour of the Christian Brother’s then Provincial, Br Jerome Barron, who is credited with doubling the number religious professions between 1902 and 1925.

The chapel was built in response to the growing numbers in the Christian Brothers and coincided with the Golden Jubilee of Br Barron’s religious profession.

Consisting of a 22-metre bell tower and ornate Romanesque features – apart from the Celtic tracery, a nod to the Christian Brothers’ Irish origins – the chapel’s designers won the Master Architect’s Gold Medal at the Turin Exhibition of 1923.

The chapel’s centenary anniversary celebrations with members of the Christian Brothers, former and current staff and students are being held on 8 September.

Sydney auxiliary Bishop Daniel Meagher concelebrated Mass to mark the Barron Memorial Chapel’s centenary on 8 September with ACU’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Catholic Mission Fr Gerald Gleeson and Strathfield Campus chapel Fr Pawel Barszczewski.

The celebrations coincided with the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who deeply inspired Blessed Edmund Rice, the founder of the Christian Brothers. The centenary celebrations also honoured the Catholic Church’s newest saint and patron of ACU’s Education portfolio, St Carlo Acutis, who was canonised on 7 September in Rome.

ACU Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Zlatko Skrbis said the milestone celebrated more than an architectural masterpiece.

“The Barron Memorial Chapel, while being a beautiful example of sacral architecture, is also a reminder that the divine and sacred needs to be at the centre of what we do as a Catholic university,” Professor Skrbis said.

“Located at the heart of the Strathfield Campus, the striking and historic chapel helps to orient our university community towards goodness, beauty and truth.

“We are forever indebted to the vision and wisdom of the Christian Brothers who made the Barron Memorial Chapel a reality 100 years ago.”

ACU’s Strathfield Campus Dean Associate Professor Belinda von Mengersen said the Barron Memorial Chapel remained a significant place of worship for members of the campus community.

“The Barron Memorial Chapel here on our Strathfield Campus has been admired by members of the local community for 100 years,” Associate Professor von Mengersen said.

“In celebrating the centenary of our magnificent chapel, we not only honour the vision of the Christian Brothers but also the special role our chapel has played in fostering vocations to marriage, the priesthood, and religious life.”