Rev William Woolfrey OCTitle: Rev First Name: William Middle Names: Odilo Preferred Name: Surname: Woolfrey Order: OC Date of Birth: 1802 Place of Birth:
Country of Birth: Date of Ordination: Place of Ordination:
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Ordination Diocese: Seminary: Date of Death: 31-Mar-1856 Place of Death: Sydney NSW Country of Death: Australia Date of Burial: 02-Apr-1856 Place of Burial: Lewisham, Sydney NSW Country of Burial: Australia Find A Grave URL: Appointments Table
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Items per page: 0 of 0 Biographical NotesEcclesiastical Intelligence, Sydney Chronicle, 21 November 1846, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31749289: --- Hobart Town Catholic Total Abstinence Society, The Hobart Town Herald and Total Abstinence advocate, 9 January 1847, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264689203: --- The Church in Van Diemen's Land, Sydney Chronicle, 30 September 1847, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article31753606: --- New Norfolk Quarter Sessions, Colonial Times, Hobart, 17 January 1851, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8768584: --- Arrivals, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 January 1852, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12933355: --- Gosford, Brisbane Water, 19th June, 1853, Freeman’s Journal, Sydney, 3 September 1853, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114833259: At a Meeting of the Roman Catholics held in the School-house, Gosford, for the purpose of taking into consideration the claims of their much beloved and respected Clergyman, the Rev. W. O. S. Wolfrey, for the purpose of presenting him with some mark of their regard and esteem for his never ceasing attention to the spiritual wants of his flock in this extensive district, and his gentlemanly demeanor to all classes of the community during his ministration amongst us. It was proposed by Mr. Denis Dwyer, and approved of by all, that subscription lists be opened for the above laudable object. And that Mr. D. Dwyer, Mr. Joseph Read, Mr. William Martin, and Mr. Michael O'Leary, do receive subscriptions at Gosford, and that Mr. James Mallon do receive subscriptions in the neighbourhood of Kingcumber, and that Mr. Dwyer be requested to act as Treasurer and receive the amounts collected. Address of the People of Brisbane Water to the Rev. W.O. Wolfrey. The Rev. W.O. Wolfrey's Reply. My claim to your extra-pecuniary assistance, is established on a twofold ground : — the first is common to me and all my brother clergymen, viz., that we are the only class of public functionaries, whose salaries the Government has not thought proper to augment in these dear times — and this because they felt assured that the people themselves would prefer to make this necessary augmentation, and that they were in duty bound to do so. The second ground on which I established my claim, is peculiar to myself— I think I may call it quite singular, and it is this; when I first came among you, eighteen months ago, there was no clergyman's home to receive me, nothing like a home ; my first residence here — and the same continued till lately — was cold and comfortless indeed —a little sacristy twelve feet by ten in the centre of this churchyard, and not a creature to accompany me. It was absolutely necessary that a modest home should be provided, and such a one is now provided ; and the raising the humble residence in which I now live, has cost, owing to the dearness of the times, between two and three hundred pounds, and this burthen I myself have borne exclusively, I have received assistance from no one. This is what I call my peculiar ground of claim on you for this your extra-pecuniary assistance; for I think it is not a very common thing, that a clergyman has to build his own residence, without any assistance from his people. Having thus explained to you the light in which I view this, your kind offering, I beg to again express to you my sincere thanks that you have fulfilled a sacred duty, a duty imposed on you not by any human law, but by the command of the church. I am grateful to you, most especially because you have commenced and carried through this contribution, as an act exclusively your own, it was planned and resolved on by you before I new anything about it, I had not even thought of such a thing. For this spontaneous good will on your part towards me I thank you, and from my heart I beg God to bless you, I devoutly pray that his best blessing may descend upon you all and that all your concerns may prosper. As yet I have not laboured much among you, but by God's blessing, my labours shall be steady and persevering ; and my constant prayer shall be, that not one of you all may suffer the slightest spiritual loss through any neglect of mine, but rather that all may derive from the exercise of my ministry a great increase of spiritual good. I am prepared and resolved to spend my health, and strength, and life, amongst you and for you ; nor will I permit myself to be discouraged if at once I do not reap abundant fruits ; for though I have not had sufficient experience amongst you to be able to pronounce high encomiums on the goodness of the moral soil I have to cultivate, still, I would fain hope that with due cultivation it will prove a grateful and fruitful soil. The very fact of your expressing your gratitude and respect in this substantial manner for the little I have done for you, proves to my entire satisfaction, that you set a high value on the exercise of the priestly ministry among you, and that it is your earnest desire to avail yourselves of the precious advantages flowing to you from such a heavenly dispensation. On my part, I devoutly hope, that by the time another eighteen months shall have passed away, you will feel impelled to acknowledge yourselves much more grateful than at present, not to me but to God, the giver of all good gifts, and not merely by pecuniary contributions to your Pastor, but by the ardour of devout and loving hearts, for the many good things derived to you from the exercise of the priestly ministry in this locality. Before I conclude, I must not forget to thank, in a very particular manner, those kind individuals who so cheerfully took upon themselves, the painful office of collecting the many small sums required to make up the handsome amount now presented to me. Indeed, I know by my own experience, that it is no pleasant task, to go to the scattered members of my flock, living, as many of them do, at a considerable distance, and separated from us by bulgas and bogs, by creeks, and almost impassable gullies. Nor must I forget to make honorable and grateful mention of some kind Protestant neighbours, who, though but slightly acquainted with me, have been pleased to show their kind good will by adding their generous contributions. My Dear Friends, — Again thanking you all, I humbly pray that the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, may descend upon you and remain with you for ever. --- Kincumbar. Boarding and Day School, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 28 October 1854, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115555576: --- Deaths, People's Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, Sydney, 5 April 1856, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article251548181: --- Deaths, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 5 April 1856, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115558149: --- Death and Obsequies of the Rev. Odilon Woolfrey, Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 5 April 1856, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115558144: It is our melancholy duty to record the demise, after a long and painful illness, of the Reverend Father Odilon Woolfrey, Cistercian, who closed his earthly career on Monday last, the Vigil of the Feast of St. Benedict, Patriarch of Monks. The Reverend gentleman whose death we chronicle, was born towards the close of the year of our Lord 1802, and was consequently in his 54th year. At an early age — that of sixteen — with all the fervour of religious enthusiasm which ever distinguished him, he offered his humble services to Almighty God — or rather he offered up himself — totally — unreservedly; for he became a Novice among the Cistercians — one of the most austere Orders in the Church — at La Trappe in France, where he remained till the blind and despotic policy of Louis Philippe drove them out of France. Like the hidden life of our Saviour, is the hidden life of all his true servants. The time which is passed in solitude and silence is not generally deemed so important as that spent in action; nevertheless, in the economy of God's Providence we always find the most distinguished of His servants led, as it were, by the hand, into that very solitude and silence, to prepare them the more fitly and faithfully to discharge their duties in the world. Thus it was with Father Woolfrey. In the retirement of La Trappe, he acquired that learning, unction, self-denial, and habitual holiness of life, which so admirably prepared him for the duties of a Foreign Mission. His labours in Tasmania and New South Wales for many years, are too well known to most of our readers to claim particular comment. His obsequies took place on Wednesday last. In the morning a pontifical Requiem Mass was celebrated by his Grace the Archbishop; and at half-past three the funeral procession moved from the Cathedral, to the last earthly home of every child of Adam. The solemn and impressive service of the Roman Ritual was subsequently gone through, and the mortal remains of the venerable priest left in the cold, dark, damp grave, to await the breathing of that Omnipotent Power, which is to kindle new life in the dead, and bid the mortal put on immortality. A good citizen, a saintly man, a true monk, and a zealous priest, is gone from amongst us — but gone, we may humbly hope, to a better home — to "The bosom of his Father and his God." Our tribute of respect to the memory of the late Father Woolfrey would be incomplete, were we not to express our unaffected condolence to the Rev. Father Norbert Woolfrey on his bereavement. He has lost in truth a loving brother — a brother his by a triple title — a brother by blood, by religious profession, and by the Sacerdotal character. We deeply sympathise with him, and join our humble prayers to his, for the repose of Father Odilon's soul. Requiescat in pace. --- Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran, History of the Catholic Church in Australasia, 1895, p 419: Two other smaller contingents of missionaries to the aboriginals from religious bodies set out from Europe at a later period, but as the missionaries in these cases never reached the black tribes, but were all employed by the Bishops on the ordinary mission amongst the white men, their history offers but small information in the matter of which we treat. The first small contingent came from the Cistercian Order in England. It consisted of Father Odillo Woolfrey, Father Norbert Woolfrey, and a postulant. They landed in Tasmania in 1846, and after a little intercourse with the remnant of the blacks of that island (only sixteen survived out of the race, which was a totally distinct race from the blacks of the continent of Australia, and once numbered tens of thousands: all sixteen are long since dead and the race extinct), the missionaries came to the Archbishop, in Sydney, who located them at Brisbane Water, but the Superior, Father Odillo Woolfrey, soon after died. Father Norbert Woolfrey joined the clergy engaged in the mission among the white population. The postulant, afterwards Father Johnson, was ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese. Both these missionaries served the Archdiocese long and well. Both died in the year 1872. |