Monsignor Martin Jordan
Title:
Monsignor
First Name:
Martin
Middle Names:
Preferred Name:
Surname:
Jordan
Order:
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Shoodaun, Athenry, Co Galway
Country of Birth:
Ireland
Date of Ordination:
Place of Ordination:
All Hallows, Dublin
Country of Ordination:
Ireland
Ordination Diocese:
Brisbane
Seminary:
All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin, Ireland
Date of Death:
Place of Death:
South Brisbane QLD
Country of Death:
Australia
Date of Burial:
Place of Burial:
Nudgee, Brisbane QLD
Country of Burial:
Australia
Find A Grave URL:
Appointments Table
Diocese | Place | Role | Start Day | Start Month | Start Year | End Day | End Month | End Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brisbane | Fortitude Valley | Curate | Priests of 1928 | ||||||
| Brisbane | Nundah | 1912 | 1941 | Priests of 1928 | |||||
| Brisbane | Maryborough | 1941 | 1957 | Priests of 1928 |
Biographical Notes
Irish birth record, https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/birth_returns/births_1886/02610/1963887.pdf: "Superintendent Registrar's District Loughrea, Registrar's District Athenry. Births Registered in the District of Athenry in the Union of Loughrea in the County of Galway. No. 176. On 13 February 1886 at Shudaun, birth of Martin, male, father Michael Jordan of Shudaun, farmer, mother Catherine Jordan formerly Coppinger; informant: Catherine Jordan her mark, mother, of Shudaun; 30 March 1886."
---
Fr Denis W. Martin, Priests of 1928, Brisbane, 2003, pp 144-146:
Mons. Martin Jordan
'If he had not been a Priest, his good looks would have made him a lot of money in Hollywood,' - so said Archbishop Duhig of Fr Jordan.
Fr Martin Jordan arrived in the Archdiocese late in 1909. He was a native of Galway and a student of St Jarlath's Seminary in Tuam and All Hallows where he had been ordained.
He worked at St Patrick's in the Valley for a short time, but soon took on the care of the Nundah district. Like James Byrne and Jerry O'Leary before him, he caught the train out to service the district from its headquarters - a little green timber church in Buckland St. His good looks had made him very popular with the Children of Mary. This of course posed a threat to Archbishop Duhig and was said to be the reason for Fr Jordan's permanent appointment out on the perimeter at Nundah.
For 30 years he was Parish Priest of Nundah - from 1912 to 1941. In the years 1925-26, he built the Renaissance style Corpus Christi Church which many saw as a prototype of the Holy Name Cathedral itself. And Archbishop Duhig was generous in his praise when he said, 'I think for position and beauty, it is not excelled by any other parish church in Brisbane, or indeed for that matter, in the whole State'.
On the death of Mons. McCarthy, Fr Jordan was pressured to leave his beloved Nundah and go to Maryborough. In 1944, he was made a Domestic Prelate with the title Monsignor.
In 1950 or so, Mons. Jordan went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, Rome and Ireland. He was so moved by Lourdes that in 1951 when his nephew Lieutenant Mark Jordan of the U.S. Army was killed in the Korean war that he had a Lourdes Grotto built in St Mary's Church grounds to his memory.
Maryborough was always prone to flooding. When the higher than usual 1955 flood came up the presbytery did not escape. Mons. Jordan refused to move out. In the end the police arrived at the upper floor verandah in a rowing boat to take him aboard, dressed as he was in a dressing gown with trousers rolled up beneath.
By this time he was a rather sick man, ailing with throat cancer. Ultimately he died in the Mater Hospital on 17th April 1957, aged 71. He was buried at Nudgee.
Once again we have to turn to Archbishop Duhig: 'His refined and friendly nature enabled him to make with ease contact with the people. He used the attractive personality with which God had endowed him to win souls for Christ and favours for the Church.'
(Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Martin.)