Chapter 3 The Difficult Years: Serra v's Salvado

 

Chapter 3 The Difficult Years:  Serra v's Salvado 

Isidro Oriol and the Missionaries at New Norcia 1853 -55

:

Introduction

Serra v's Salvado : their different personalities and aims for New Norcia.

Serra leaves for Rome, Salvado in charge 

Life at New Norcia: Isidro and the artisan Brothers get to work 

Adjusting to a new life 

Aboriginal beliefs and relations with the missionaries.

Serra returns and withdraws the  Brothers from New Norcia to work on his buildings in Perth and Fremantle.

Disillusioned, some priests and Brothers begin to leave the Community,.

(c) Hilaire Natt  

7.10.2023

Trouble ahead: Serra v's Salvado

While Isidro, Manuel Martinez and the other missionaries settled into their new home, the Subiaco Monastery, Bishop Salvado’s joy at their arrival had been ‘poisoned' when Bishop Serra, told him of Serra's wish to go to Europe soon to resolve problems.

Bishop Jose Serra, in Rome before leaving for WA in 1849. .jpg  (NNA 7796P) 

Salvado learned that Serra, a conservative priest, hot tempered and easily offended, had fallen out with a number of Catholic groups, as well as the colonial government. Serra, accustomed to life in Spain where a bishop was all powerful, had difficulty adapting to the British colonial system and accepting the independence of the nuns in Perth. Unlike the nuns in Spain,  who spent cloistered lives praying in a convent, the Irish Sisters of Mercy were active in the community, opening schools and caring for the poor.  They were responsible only to their superior in Ireland and their independence in WA had been guaranteed in an agreement with Bishop Brady. ‘They could not agree on anything and a settlement had been postponed until my arrival’, Salvado wrote in his Report of 1883 (1). Serra had also antagonised Governor Fitzgerald over funding for Catholic schools and the Governor had cut off existing grants. 

Salvado, genial, diplomatic and popular in the diocese, ‘set to work with a lot of good heart and interest’ to resolve the issues and ‘after a few weeks I had the impression that peace was guaranteed’. But the peace would not last. 

Salvado and Serra had very different aims for the future of the Benedictine community. Salvado remained dedicated to his vision of a Benedictine Community and a mission at New Norcia to which the Aboriginal people (whom he referred to as sevlaggi or bush people) would be admitted ‘in order to instruct and civilize them’. But Serra had lost interest in the mission, virtually abandoned it and sent the Aboriginal people away. He saw it only as a farm supplying grain, sheep and horses as a source of income for the diocese. His aim was to establish a  Benedictine monastic province with a series of 

European ‘monastic communities’, like the Franciscans had established in California.

Two months later, on 16 October,  Serra suggested he and Salvado visit New Norcia but at the last minute Serra, upset by some imagined slight, cancelled his visit and told Salvado to go without him. 

In his Report to Propagation Fide 1883 Salvado describes the changes to the New Norcia mission in his absence in Europe:

What desolation! I found only one Brother who had been put in charge of the entire Mission.  The little church had become a stable and there was in fact a horse inside when I arrived. The Baptismal Register had become the book of tobacco notes and similar stuff. The accounts book had disappeared. The house or little monastery had been looted and everything I had left in 1849 was not there any more; everything had disappeared including my monastic habits. 

There were few animals, sheep or horses left. Many had been sold,  others donated in return for services . All that were left were a few rejected animals that were looked after in the bush by two Brothers, night and day. "And what can I say about what was then being done for the selvaggi [bush people] in the mission? With only one word, that is Nothing …in fact not even one of them was there when arrived, they had all been sent away.’ (2) 

A few days later a letter arrived from Bishop Serra saying he was sailing immediately for Europe and putting Salvado in charge of the diocese during his absence. As soon as he received the letter Salvado gave instructions ‘in order to improve the miserable state of New Norcia’ and returned to Perth. and set about restoring order and planning the future of the Diocese and the monastery at New Norcia (3)  

Until Serra returned twenty months later, Salvado in his new role as Administrator of the Diocese, would be occupied in completing necessary projects, repairing rifts within the church and restoring relationships between Church and Government. 

Salvado dressed for a mission journey 

(NNA 666P-2)

The ‘poor postulants’

 

One of his immediate concerns was the primitive conditions under which the first group of 39 missionaries who had arrived with Serra in 1849 were living, without any adequate monastery or monastic organisation.    But knowing Serra would overrule his changes on his return, he limited himself to ‘improving ‘the material conditions of the poor postulants who, to tell the truth, I would describe not just humiliating but shameful’. 

Apart from the four Brothers at New Norcia, some were building the Bishop's Palace (Serra's Residence) in Victoria Square while others worked in the ‘big garden' next door,

 ‘watering the flowers and the like. A few were living about three miles from the capital in a hut made of posts and covered with reeds. They had built it themselves so they would not sleep outside. They called this hut the New Subiaco Monastery though there was not a monk there … they were all postulants, they all wore the monastic habit and were called ‘Brother’ .... This was exactly the state in which I found all monastic activities on my arrival in August 1853 and this was the state in which Mgr Serra left them when, on 21 October of the same year, he left Perth to go to Rome.’ (4)  Report p.56). 

Working in Perth meant a daily  walk of three miles each way from  the Subiaco Monastery to the Bishop's Palace in Perth. The photo below shows the palace and garden a few years later. 

"The governesses in Victoria Avenue c. 1870". The Bishop's Palace, completed 1859 (left) with the large garden in front and the new St Mary's Cathedral built in 1863 (right) with the little church of St John the Evangelist in front. (Battye Library b3983304_1.jpg)

New Norcia Mission at last

It was not until 13 October 1853, two months after their arrival, that Salvado, now in charge, was able to send his group of postulants, including Isidro Oriol and his fellow artisans, Juan Bancells, and Francisco Ventura to New Norcia.

Manuel Martinez was no longer with the group so we miss the insights from his diary.   He had been transferred to Perth due to illness and was now living at  Bp Serra’s episcopal residence in Perth, ‘to do whatever I was told or commanded’.  However he witnessed the first artisan Brothers leaving for New Norcia.

On 13 [October] I had the pleasure of seeing the first Brothers leaving for the Mission of New Norcia, in two carts drawn by 10 or 12 bullocks, well laden with [the] provisions and utensils, needed for the agricultural work and for various trades. On 17 [October] at 3 am Bishop Salvado, accompanied by Father Aragon, left for the mission, arriving shortly after the Brothers (5).

It was a long,  exhausting walk of over 80 miles (about 130 kilometres) through the bush for Isidro Oriol and his fellow Brothers, accompanying  the heavily laden bullock wagons. It was their first real experience of the Australian bush, with its harsh beauty, wildflowers, strange animals  and plentiful insects but in October the weather was still reasonably mild. The journey took three or four days and nights, camping in the bush and following the track Salvado and the Aboriginal people had made from Bindoon in 1846.  Salvado and Father Aragon followed a few days later on horseback. Once the group was established in their new home, Salvado returned to Perth to administer the diocese and Fr Aragon remained in charge. However, Salvado would return whenever possible.

From The Salvado Memoirs, (E.J. Storman trans. UWAP, 1977). Image by a Spanish illustrator for the original Historische Memoirs in 1851

The Mission consisted of simple buildings mainly of timber and thatch, the chapel, and a few outhouses to store farming equipment.  The most substantial building was the large stone monastery or monks’ dormitory which had been built by ‘a caravan’ of volunteer tradesmen from Perth in 1846  (Construction is described in Salvado’s Memoirs p.59) .  The only image of New Norcia from that period (above) is based on the description by Salvado to a Spanish illustrator and gives a rather romantic impression of the mission buildings, the monks and the ‘natives'. 

As Salvado noted in his Report, the main work of the new group of Brothers at New Norcia in 1853 was to develop a productive farm and mission: “ploughing more soil, enclosing and cultivating it, since to have bread was one of the first and most urgent needs of the Mission, in which some selvaggi (bush people) had been admitted in order to instruct and civilise them. (6)

The Brothers set to work clearing and ploughing land, planting and fencing and enclosing crops, shepherding and tending to the sheep and sinking wells for vital water. Those with skills as carpenters and builders, like Brother Oriol, and Brother Ventura, a stone dresser, were kept busy making necessary repairs and extensions to the monastery and other farm buildings. There were plans to extend the monastery and build a mill and houses for the Aborigines (6).

The Brothers worked beside the Aborigines, leading by example and encouraging them to develop the skills to farm their own land (7). The project to civilize and evangelise the native people, would be achieved, Salvado believed, by integrating the European ethos of work and Christianity with respect for Aboriginal beliefs and lifestyle. This included allowing them  time to return to their land on ‘Walkabout’. 

Salvado had made a detailed study of the Aboriginal languages and culture, (as described in the second section of his Historische Memoirs), and insisted on the importance of understanding the Aboriginal way of life and respecting their beliefs.  Introducing religious concepts and changes ‘by degrees’, would be essential if the mission was to succeed in evangelising and civilizing the Aborigines (8.)  As a musician Salvado understood the importance of music for the Aboriginal people and it would become an important part of life at New Norcia.  He also translated hymns like the Our Father into the Aboriginal language., and an example is quoted by Russo.  (7) 

There was some formal education too: In his Memoirs, Salvado mentions opening the ‘College of New Norcia’ in 1847 with three Aboriginal boys, followed by others whose parents had wished them to stay at the mission with the monks to learn the ways of Christianity.  However this was closed when Salvado left in 1849 to go to Europe.

Life at New Norcia in 1853-55

Everyone lived frugally –furniture was sparse and basic in construction, including tables, chairs and bedding.  Some was donated by generous Perth residents after the publicity of Salvado’s fundraising concert of 1846.  Kangaroo skins were often used as bed covers. 

Everything including food, an important attraction for the Aboriginal people, was shared. If it ran out the Aborigines would leave to hunt for their own.  Meals were simple, cooked outside on open fires, and food, mainly rice soup, bread and tea, was shared with the Aborigines at the Mission. Meat featured occasionally and, rarely, sheep from the farm.  Sometimes the Aborigines would augment their diet by hunting.  In the early days of the mission (c. 1846)  Salvado and Serra had become accustomed to eating possums, goannas, roots and various Aboriginal treats when their food ran out.  (9) Memoirs p. 41 and in Report passim.

For those first months in 1853-4, food supplies had to be brought from Perth and were not always adequate.  The Mission’s isolation and primitive lifestyle sometimes impacted on the monks’ health. Fr Martin Griver, a priest who trained as a doctor in Barcelona, looked after the medical needs of the mission and visited when necessary as there were few doctors in the colony.. 

Martin Griver who later became Bishop of Perth.. Copy of an engraving made in 1896 (Martin Griver Unearthed, Odhran O'Brian, St Paul's Press , 2014, p,1)

Sometimes a note with instructions would be sufficient but when there was a serious condition or outbreak he would travel to New Norcia and stay there. In July 1854, several  months after the group had arrived, he had to extend his stay as many monks were suffering greatly, including Br Oriol.  ‘Almost all have infected and bleeding gums and purple spots on their thighs and legs’,  Griver wrote to Salvado on 17 July, 1854.  Griver’s diagnosis was scurvy – caused by malnutrition. He prescribed that the monks change their diet and made a homeopathic remedy from natural ingredients.’ (10)

Another letter from Fr Griver (in New Norcia) to Salvado (in Perth) on 29 January, 1855 describes his visit, on horseback, to check on health problems there. He reports arriving: ‘well and wet, while the Brothers were eating at midday. The Brothers are not as bad as he [Griver] thought. Br Pietro Ferrara is weaker than might have been thought. As soon as he is  better he will be able to go to the shepherds' hut to look after the flock. Br Oriol won't get better so quickly, but G.[Griver] has decided that he does not need to be transferred to Perth. The rest are OK. ‘ (10) 

Griver discusses another patient, Aboriginal girl Mary Cecilia, with flu symptoms – the cure ‘drinking goats milk’– and proposes to leave for Perth on 5 February. Isidro Oriol and the other brothers may have also have had flu.  Griver regarded his medical work as part of his missionary work  and as well as treating the Brothers,  he  treated the Aborigines (whom. he called 'Australians') in the same way he treated the monks. 'In 1857 at New Norcia, Griver treated indigenous people with swollen knees. He used traditional methods such as 'leeches and poultices' in conjunction with natural recipes'. He also researched recipes for rubs and ointments... to soothe symptoms with ingredients readily available or easy to grow such as mustard seed and local plants.' Salvado and Griver were committed to developing their knowledge of medicine, homeopathy and local flora' (11)  

Many of the Brothers were also unaccustomed to regular physical labour and this, combined with the primitive living conditions, unfamiliar surroundings and isolation from family and friends, made it difficult to adjust to the differences in culture and climate. For some, fear of the ‘savages’, the strangeness and emptiness of the bush where it was easy to get lost,  preyed on their minds and a few  became mentally disturbed and had to be restrained.   (12.). 

Salvado was aware of these problems and tried help the new monks adapt.  Manuel Beleda, an organist who arrived in 1853, kept a diary which mentions special classes – the Brothers were required to learn English and English measures as well as Aboriginal culture (13).. Later, special training was given to the monks and Aborigines in new skills necessary for the constructing the Mission, such as lessons in brickmaking by professional builders ( 14).   

In an article on Br Beleda and his diary, Judith Woodward, discusses the stresses that Beleda and other Brothers experienced adapting to life at New Norcia. These include the need to learn new skills and language,  lack of opportunity to use earlier training,  and the toll of heavy physical work. So Beleda,  an 'organist',  doesn't appear to have been involved in music at New Norcia at all.  Instead he became a messenger driving carts between New Norcia and Perth and sometimes to the railhead at Mogumber to pick up official visitors to the mission (15).

Apart from the psychological stresses of living so close to other anxious Brothers while the monastery was being built around them,  there was the unpredictable local weather pattern.  In his diary, Beleda carefully records rainfall, and lack of rain is often the reason for prayers of supplication.  The threat of fire was also a constant cause of concern in the mission. (16)

Farming at  New Norcia. 

The routine of farming and production at the Mission was quickly established and after a few months of hard work, the Brothers at the Mission were again producing crops of wheat and shearing the flock of sheep to produce wool.  The lifeline between New Norcia and the rest of the colony was a roster of bullock or horse drawn carts, which made regular visits to the city with produce and mail and returned with supplies, tools and building materials. The carts, which feature frequently in Salvado’s reports of farming activity, also had a vital role in projects such harvesting, construction, and providing supplies to workers in remote parts of the Mission (17).  The drivers were initially monks like Br Manuel Beleda, with Aboriginal assistants but later Aboriginal drivers were employed.    

An essential aim in establishing New Norcia was for the community to be self sufficient in food production, particularly grain for flour, animals for meat and fruit and vegetables. Agricultural produce was also a vital source of income for the Mission, and as Salvado purchased and leased more land, the sale of grain, wool and sheep, and later horses for the Indian Army, would become crucial to the survival of the mission.  

Salvado became one of the Colony’s most successful pastoralists, developing skills as a surveyor and choosing land to lease with easy access to water, which often involved sinking wells.  He had become a British citizen in 1849 which enabled him to buy land. The Land Regulations of 1847 had opened up the land for lease or purchase and it was possible to purchase land up to ten acres around any wells sunk. This ensured the lease was viable and prevented others from taking over the lease but sometimes caused conflict with other settlers (18).

Isidro Oriol at New Norcia, October 1853 to May 1855  

Br. Oriol, carpenter and cabinet maker, was at New Norcia from October 1853 to mid 1855..The correspondence summaries from the New Norcia archives give a detailed account of Mission activities at the time and include references to Br. Isidro Oriol..

The first mention of Br. Oriol is in a letter on 20/4/1854 from Salvado (Perth) to V. Garrido (New Norcia):“Br Oriol is finishing a large box for carrying provisions to the Mission”. Salvado goes on to discuss a request for the Brother blacksmiths at New Norcia to make some items for Mr Lefroy on his farm. After insisting their priority is work on the Mission he agrees they may help in small matters, but any payment should go to an Aboriginal assistant. 'Thus people would have no grounds for thinking the Brothers are mercenaries or public artisans'..  An important policy was being established. (17)

As a carpenter and joiner Isidro’s work involved structural work making doors, windows, and  flooring for new buildings and repairs to existing ones.  New  buildings would include a mill to store grain, a larger church and the first cottages for the Aboriginal families and workers. (Report passim)

     

A sketch of the rear of the monastery buildings in the 1860s and 1870s. The original cottage is in the centre, the north extension on the right was commenced in the 1850s.The South wing, left, was under construction in the 1870s. (Hutchinson p.110)

A skilled cabinet maker, Br. Oriol soon learned to work the hard jarrah (or Swan River Mahogany), pit sawn nearby, to make simple furniture including tables, chairs and beds for the monks and their visitors. The West Australian timber was very different from the traditional European wood such as walnut and cedar (19). 

Some simple furniture at the monastery, dating from this period, has been attributed to Br. Oriol by furniture restorer and researcher Timothy Harris, who spent some time at New Norcia assessing and restoring furniture in 2009.   This includes a chair and table with a drawer, a distinguishing mark being the way Oriol assembled (dove tailed) the drawers (20).

     

Father Emelian Coll, the dispensing chemist at the monastery, is here with his pupils in 1863. The simple chair and table (stained from use in mixing medicines), are attributed by Timothy Harris to Isidro Oriol during his time at the monastery c. 1853-55 (21). 

Monastic life at New Norcia In 1854 and 1855: 

Establishing a Benedictine Community at the mission with a monastic routine and formal religious practices, was a primary goal for Salvado and the monk-priests in charge, But when the missionaries first arrived and the mission was being built around them, the formal routine of Monastic life was not yet fully established.  So Br Beleda noted in his diary on his arrival at New Norcia at Easter 1854:  'the life we observed... one can say could be like a very good Christian one but had nothing of the monastic'. (Beleda Diary p.1)  

However Woodward comments, 'it was probably an exaggeration as Beleda remarks on rising at 5 am (3am in summer) and the pattern of mass, meals, saying of offices. study and manual work throughout the day'.  Which was probably the case in 1854-5 when Isidro and his group were at New Norcia.  But when Salvado was able to take control in 1859 'Beleda notes with favour the increasing strictness of monastic life and other reforms to the daily routine' (22). 

A stricter routine adopted in 1863 is described by Salvado in his Report of 1883 which gives a general idea of the Benedictine monastic routine in 1854. 

The day begins at 5 am rising for Matins and daily Mass, followed by everyone going to make their beds and to allocated tasks. At 7am Breakfast, a cup of tea and bread (no milk or butter) then to work or school until the Angelus at 12 noon and lunch of ‘soup of rice or legumes, followed by meat with bread and water (Salvado report p.91-2). 

Spiritual readings at lunch were followed by rest then work until sunset.  The traditional prayers of the Office of St Benedict were said during the day –' Prime, Terce, None and at sunset work was suspended and Vespers said. Followed by supper, tea and bread, then we go back to the church for prayers and Compline which is sung, and more prayers and ‘monastic practices’.  At 8 o’clock ‘when the signal sounds for retiring everyone goes to bed.’  Important feast days were also celebrated (23). 

Eventually a noviciate was established at Subiaco and later moved to New Norcia, where postulants could become novices, take additional vows and train to become monks. But in the mid- 1850s  the practical activities necessary to sustain the Mission took precedence.   Whereas most Benedictine monasteries were dedicated to prayer, New Norcia was unique – ‘lavore est orare:  to work is to pray.

Brothers involved in heavy physical work were given dispensations from attending prayers, when their labour was in demand or when their work as shepherds or well sinkers took them some distance from the Mission.  There were extra rations for those involved in hard physical work, including sometimes an extra wine ration (24), Fire was constant hazard and fighting fires involved the mobilisation of the entire community.  

Celebrations and the Aborigines

Sundays and feast days would be celebrated with Mass, processions and special prayers and hymns. Public prayers were also said asking for divine help with practical problems– frequently for rain.  A special prayer of thanksgiving, the Te Deum was sung on solemn occasions, such as on the wharf when they were leaving Cadiz or at the little Cathedral of St. John on their safe arrival in Perth.  Mary was especially honoured and the feast of the Immaculate Conception, August 15th, the day the John Panter had arrived and also the day of Salvado’s ordination as a Bishop, was celebrated with great pomp. 

According to historian George Russo,  ‘The Aborigines always found the Spanish form of liturgy attractive, for the ornate vestments, the burning incense and the singing reminded them of their own corroborees, so they threw themselves into the ceremonies with great gusto’ (25). 

From the beginning music was important at New Norcia as a link and way of communication between the Brothers and the Aborigines. The aborigines were clever mimics and Salvado discovered they had considerable musical talent. He taught the children to sing religious hymns with him ‘in the aboriginal tongue to their own beat’ Salvado also translated prayers such as the Lord’s Prayer into the aboriginal language. 

Brother Vincente Oltra, who had left his position as organist at Barcelona Cathedral to join Salvado in 1853, would make an important contribution to New Norcia. He formed a choir and in the 1860s established an orchestra and brass band (26).

One of the first Aborigines to befriend the monks was Bob Nogogot, a member of the Bindoon tribe, who was a great help to Salvado in the early days. He is seen here with his wife Joanna and family in the 1860s.  ( Battye Library 73556P)

   

By mid 1855 the farm and mission were operating successfully and new buildings included a mill and two cottages with land for the Aborigines. In 1855 the Magistrate of Toodyay reported what he saw:

An excellent mill likely to be of great service to the district, a barn, stockyards, perfect fences of immense strength also a large chapel ... the Fathers have got 150 acres under crop. Their ploughs, from the appearance of the crop, are most efficient ... and a dam formed by an embankment across the Moore River. (27) 

Serra Returns in May 1855: 

This was the situation at New Norcia  in May 1855, when Bp Serra returned to WA. But Serra, now in charge of the Diocese again, had no interest in the mission. He immediately withdrew the artisan Brothers from New Norcia to work on his monastic building projects in Perth and Fremantle. The Aboriginal people were sent away and the crops and flocks were sold off to finance the Perth Diocese.  Soon there was no produce left to sell, the priests and most of the Brothers had been transferred to Subiaco and the New Norcia mission was virtually abandoned.

This was not the life the missionaries had expected when they came to Western Australia. They felt Serra had betrayed them and both priests and lay brothers began to leave the Benedictine Community. Some returned to Spain, others left for the Benedictine mission in Ceylon, and some remained to become colonists in Perth.  

END OF CHAPTER.3

7.10.2023

Chapter 3   Footnotes:

1.  Girola, Stefano (Translated & Edited), Report of Rosendo Salvado to Propaganda Fide in 1883, (2015) Abbey Press, Northcote, Vic. 3071 (p.51)

2. Ibid p 53. 

3. Ibid p.56

4. Ibid p.56

5. Martinez y Sanchez, Manuel, Diary first 12 pages, Translation Anon, Transcribed Hilaire Natt 2019, New Norcia Archives.-.p.2

6. Girola ibid p. 

7. Russo, George, Lord Abbot  of the Wilderness: The Life and Times of Bishop Salvado, (1980) The Polding Press, Melbourne 3000.p131

8. Ibid p.159

9. Storman, E.J., S.J. (Translated & Edited). The Salvado Memoirs, Historical memoirs of Australia and particularly of the Benedictine Mission of New Norcia and of the habits and customs of the Australian natives, by Dom Salvado O.S.B. (1977) University of Western Australia Press. (p.41)

10. Odhran O’Brien, Martin Griver Unearthed: the life of a Spanish missionary priest who became a bishop in colonial Western Australia, 1814 – 1886, (2014) St Paul’s Publications, Society of St. Paul, Strathfield N.S.W.(p. 74)

11.  Ibid p. 75

12. Storman passim and  De Castro, Teresa, ‘New Norcia’s Golden Decade: Rosendo Salvado’s correspondence in the last years of the nineteenth century (1891-1900)’, New Norcia Studies No 14, 2006 (passim)

12. Woodward, Judith, ‘Manuel Beleda, 1853 - 1885: His association with the Mission at New Norcia’, New Norcia Studies No 2, June 1995 p.21- 36 (passim) 

13. Russo passim

14. David Hutchinson (ed)  A Town like No Other: The Living Tradition of New Norcia, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1995 (p.48)

15. Woodward, Ibid p.31

16. Girola Ibid p.94 and passim

17.  Salvado Corresp 20/04/1854 Salvado, R.  Perth to Garrido, V. New Norcia No 2- 2234A/9.97. 

 

18. Russo p.57- 59 

19. Timothy Harris ‘Isidro Oriol, furniture maker and entrepreneur’, New Norcia Studies  No   2009, pp   p.70)

20. Ibid p.70

21. Hutchinson p,

22. Woodward p.29 

23. Girola p.91-92

24. John Kagi and Correspondence about Fra Guiseppe 

25. Russo p.207

26. Ibid p.131

27. Ibid p.79