Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 1, 1979, p 36:

Brun, Henri, AA, Very Rev., French
A Very Zealous Augustinian of the Assumption
Arr. 1861 with three other men of the same Order that Bp. James Quinn had recruited in Nimes (see Group 2 in Religious Orders, p. 6).The four worked in different parishes, Brun taking the place of the famous Fr. Wm. McGinty in Ipswich. The stay lasted from '63 to '72. He brought the Mercy Sisters and with the help of AA Brothers and lay teachers conducted a boarding school for boys. Hence he can be numbered among the pioneers of Catholic education in Queensland. He figures in several other articles on the Church there.
(Footprints, Vol. 1, No. 9)
Ref.: MDHC File, Torquay - compiled: from notes of Fr. J. McKey, Sr. Anne McLay RSM, and Fr. Alan Brown.

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Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, pp 44-45:
Very Rev Dean Henri Brun AA, VF

Jean Pierre Henri Brun was born at Langogne in Southern France on 1 October 1821. He was ordained for the diocese of Mende on 20 December 1845. In 1850 he joined the Order of St Augustine of the Assumption. With the permission of his religious superior he joined the Brisbane mission arriving in Moreton Bay on 5 March 1863 with Br Polycarp aboard the Golden City after 82 days at sea. On the 7th he left the vessel to arrive in Brisbane at 2.00pm.

On 31 March he accompanied the bishop, Fathers Curley and Bowe to Ipswich for Easter ritual beginning on Good Friday, the 3 April. Fr Brun spent a short time in Brisbane, making a trip to his old Friend Fr Tissot in Maryborough where he met Fr Terrance Quinn.

On 8 August he became priest-in-charge of the Ipswich mission. Fr Curly was his curate.(1)

In 1865 Bishop Quinn in the presence of 250 people blessed and opened St Edmund's chapel at Redbank. Fr Brun celebrated the first Mass in the small chapel seating 60 persons. A luncheon followed at which Bishop Quinn said:

The toast he was about to propose was the health of the gentleman who had been mainly instrumental in bringing so many friends together, the Rev Father Brun. (Cheers.)(2)

Fr Brun had a close friendship with Fr Renehan and was accused by the Bishop of supporting Fr Renehan in Renehan's leadership of rebel priests. Sister Anne McLay writes:

He (Quinn) placed the blame squarely onto the 'cunning' and 'wicked disposition' of Renehan and Père Henri Brun of Ipswich, who was in league with him.(3)
The Bishop appointed a Judices Quaerelarum to investigate the upheaval at the annual Synod: Brun was subjected to six hours of interrogation in the Synod and finally confessed to having conspired with the Rev Mr M P Renehan in order to write false imputations to both Rome and Paris.(4)

Fr Brun apologised to the bishop. He was a zealous and hard-working priest who provided churches and catholic education in many districts. In 1867 the Rose Inn on the Old Toowoomba Road in Gatton, which vacated when the railway came to Gatton, was purchased by Fr Brun purchased for £200. This building served as a school and Mass centre for Ipswich priests visiting Gatton on a rotational basis. On 29 July 1866, Bishop Quinn opened a fine timber St Patrick's in Laidley, built by Fr Brun in the old township.

Bishop Quinn, who had blessed and opened a number of Churches built under Father Brun's direction, said: 'If building churches would send a man to heaven, Father Brun would occupy a high position there'.(5)

Prior to his departure for the First Vatican Council Bishop Quinn organised his diocese:

He made provision for the government of the diocese in such a way that he believed everything would go on well. He appointed the Very Rev Drs Dunne and Cani, his Vicars- General; and Fathers Brun, of Ipswich, Murlay, of Rockhampton, and Tissot, of Maryborough, would be Deans in their respective districts.(6)

Twelve months after the bishop's return the Ipswich press announced:

Some weeks ago the rumour spread that Dean Brun was about to leave for Europe. It now appears that he has been summoned by his superiors to attend the general chapter of the religious order to which he belongs.(7)

The Queensland Times carried a report of the function to farewell Dean Brun and James Breen, a teacher returning to Ireland to complete his education for the priesthood:

A farewell banquet in honour of the Very Rev Henry Brun and Mr J Breen of St Mary's, in this town, was given at the school-house adjoining the church on the evening of 25th ultimo, and passed off with Great Spirit. … The chairman said the next toast was the grand toast of the evening – their distinguished guest, The Very Rev Dean Brun. … On the previous Sunday, in church, after the last mass the rev gentleman's parishioners had presented him with an address, accompanied by a purse of money, to which the Dean gave suitable reply. …
Very Rev and Dear Father, It is with sentiment of profound regret we address you today. We have been so long accustomed to regard you as our permanent pastor, and have so little expected a separation, that this severance of the ties which have hitherto united us is doubly painful. Our only consolation for the present is the hope that a few months will see you in our midst once more. …
The Very Rev Dean Brun responded. He thanked them sincerely, for the manner in which the toast had been proposed and responded to, and he would assure them that he thoroughly understood their feeling. He knew that it was not a mere ceremony, where a great deal was said but very little meant. … He intended to come back again in about eleven months, and he would not need to leave them again, unless his superior thought it necessary to call him away another time, when it would be likely that the parting would be until that when they meet never to part again. He begged again to thank all his friends for the ovation which they had that evening given to him.(8)

The lengthy of the report shows the affection with which Fr Brun was held in Ipswich.

Fr Brun and Br Polycarp Hudry left Brisbane on 14 March 1873 to return to France. After working in France for 18 years Fr Brun moved to New York on 19 April 1891 as chaplain to five Sisters of the Assumption who were setting up a foundation there.

In April 1895 Ipswich received news of Fr Brun's death in New York on 15 January. The Ipswich press, in a lengthy article, revisited memories of his wonderful work as parish priest of Ipswich. It also remembered his faithful companion, Brother Polycarp.

It would be difficult for Ipswich people to think of Father Brun's pastorate without recalling another familiar figure, namely 'Polycarp', or, to give him his proper title, Brother Polycarp. In fact it was through Polycarp (who is now in Jerusalem) that the news of Father Brun's death has been received.(9)

Nearly ten years after Fr Brun's death, almost thirty years after his departure, Fr James Duhig in his 1904 Souvenir wrote beautifully of Brun's legacy in Ipswich.

Fr Brun of saintly memory, had all the religious fire and enthusiasm of the French missionary, and to this day he is remembered in Ipswich as the children's priest; the priest of the beautiful Corpus Christi processions and touching Holy Week devotions; the priest of undying fidelity to the principles of religious education.(10)

Footnotes
1. Fr Brun's diary from 1850. Translation from the French in Brisbane Archdiocesan archives.
2. Brisbane Courier, 13 Sep, 1865, p. 3.
3. Yvonne Margaret McLay, James Quinn: First Catholic Bishop of Brisbane, 1979, p. 74.
4. Ibid. p. 77.
5. Denis Long, In the Vineyard – 100 years of Catholic Life in the Lockyer Valley, 1986, pp. 9 and 33.
6. Brisbane Courier, Brisbane, 23 Sep 1869, p. 3.
7. Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Ipswich, 1 Mar 1873, p. 3.
8. Ibid. 20 Mar 1873, p. 3.
9. Ibid. 9 Apr 1895, p. 7.
10. John R Kane, St Mary's Ipswich, The Luckie Parish, Fr Luckie to Dr Oxenham 1849-1983, 2011, p. 72.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.