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Rev Nazerio Clementoni

Title:

Rev

First Name:

Nazerio

Middle Names:

Preferred Name:

Surname:

Clementoni

Order:

Date of Birth:

Place of Birth:

Country of Birth:

Italy

Date of Ordination:

Place of Ordination:

Country of Ordination:

Ordination Diocese:

Seminary:

Date of Death:

Place of Death:

Country of Death:

Date of Burial:

Place of Burial:

Country of Burial:

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Appointments Table

Diocese
Place
Role
Start Day
Start Month
Start Year
End Day
End Month
End Year
Source
Brisbane IpswichMar1871Oct1871Fr Denis Long, Pioneer and Early Priests
Brisbane BowenOct1871Jul1873Fr Denis Long, Pioneer and Early Priests
Brisbane Charters Towers1873Linane Vol 2; Fr Denis Long, Pioneer and Early Priests
Items per page:
0 of 0


Biographical Notes

Shipping Intelligence. Arrivals, Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 30 August 1873, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122564059:

August 27.—James Paterson, A.S.N. Co.'s ss., 387 tons, Captain Richards, from Rockhampton and Northern Ports. Passengers: [...] Father Clementoni, and 45 in the steerage.

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[Advertisements], The Northern Miner, Charters Towers, 4 July 1874, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article77040862:

Catholic Church.
Rev. Father Clementoni,
Charters Towers.

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Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, p 50:

Clementoni, Nazerio, Italian
Lists gleaned from newspapers show that he was in Charters Towers in the 1870s. Nothing more is known.
(Footprints, Vol. 2, No. 6)

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Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, pp 98-99:
Fr Nazareno Clementoni

Fr Clementoni was among the group of Italian, German and English priests, recruited by Bishop Quinn, during his absence in Europe from September 1869 until May 1872. Clementoni arrived before Quinn with other recruits, as reported by the local press.

February 28 – Storm King, Ship (Black Ball Line), 1148 tons, Captain G Holden, from London Passengers: Saloon - … Rev Girolmo Pieranto, Rev Giuseppe Romani, Rev Nazareno Clementoni, Rev Giralmo Davido, Rev Giovanni Rossi, Rev Benedetto Scortechini, Rev Constantine Rossolini, Rev Francissus Kalrehan (sic), … Second Saloon – Rev Giacomo Natali.(1)

The earliest newspaper report on Fr Clementoni has him stationed at Ipswich in June, 1871.

Week ending June 17 On Sunday last, being the Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi, the annual procession in honour of the Most Holy Sacrament took place at St Mary's Church.
At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the procession issued from the Church in the following order: - The girls of the Convent school, 150 in number, dressed in white, bearing banners, the principal of which was that of the Blessed Sacrament and that of our Blessed Lady; the Convent Choir, who during the whole of the ceremonies sang the liturgical hymns in a most creditable manner; the cross-bearer with the processional cross; about 40 altar boys, in soutane and surplice, bearing lighted candles; two thurifers carrying the thuribles; the canopy, born by four young men in albs and sashes; the Blessed Sacrament, born under the canopy by the Very Rev Dean Brun, accompanied by Rev N Clementoni, reciting the appropriate psalms and hymns; Dr Heeney, Messrs P O'Sullivan, G E O'Brien and O Hayes, bearing large lighted candles; about 30 other gentlemen, also with lighted candles.
Having arrived at the altar in the presbytery grounds benediction was given, the choir chanting the O Salutaris, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, and the Tantum Ergo. After the benediction the procession moved, in this same order as before, to the altar in the convent grounds, where benediction was given, after which the procession returned to the church.
The Very Rev Dean Brun then preached a sermon on the Real Presence of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. After the sermon the devotions terminated with benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The ceremonies were attended by a large concourse of people. Many persons of other denominations were present, and conducted themselves with great propriety
." (2)

When the Governor visited Ipswich on the 9 September 1871, Fr Clementoni is mentioned in the official guest list at the levée.(3)

Fr Clementoni was appointed to Rockhampton as assistant to Dean Murlay. From October 1871 until July 1873, he officiated at 38 baptisms there.(4)

The Brisbane Courier reported:

Marriage Act – The Rev Nazareno Clementoni and the Rev Robert Fitzwilliam Dunham, Roman Catholic Ministers, at Bowen and Rockhampton respectively, are registered as authorised celebrants of marriage.(5)

Fr Clementoni had arrived in Bowen shortly before the death of the famous Fr William McGinty. He was to assist the dying Fr McGinty, and was at his death-bed.

A report of Fr McGinty's death appeared in the Ipswich Queensland Times from a letter sent to the Port Denison Times by Fr Clementoni.

The Late Fr McGinty
The following letter is published in the Port Denison Times:—Sir,—On Monday, the 27th November last, departed this life—unto eternal rest—The Rev Father William McGinty, comforted with the sacraments of his religion and anointed by the Rev Father Nazareno Clementoni.
"The death of the rev gentleman was caused by an epileptic fit which lasted two hours and a half, during which he lost his speech and the use of his right leg. He was between fifty and fifty-one years of age, and in his twenty-sixth year of his apostleship in this colony.
"Among the remarkable works of his ministry one is the handsome stone church in Ipswich and another church in this town. There is no person or family, as it were, in the colonial districts that has not felt and still feels the benevolent effects of his works and apostolic labours, which when he could not perfect it lately with human force, by reason of his illness, he showed it abundantly in his good heart.
I am, sir, Yours &c,
Nazareno Clementoni PP
St Mary's, Bowen, Dec 8, 1871
.(6)

Clementoni left Bowen to succeed Fr Michael J Murray at Charters Towers in late 1873.(7) The Charters Towers newspaper in 1874 carried an advertisement that Fr Clementoni was the resident priest in that city.(8) While his name again appears in Pugh's Almanac in 1875 as stationed at Charters Towers, his name does not appear in the 1876 edition. The Almanac publishes his name as stationed at Bowen again in 1877 and 1878. Is there any evidence that he returned to Bowen in those years? After that date his name never appears again in the Almanac.

I have not found a record of the date on which Fr Clementoni left Queensland, or of his future ministry.

Footnotes
1. Brisbane Courier, 1 Mar 1871, p. 2; and QT, Ipswich, 18 Mar 1871, p. 4.
2. Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, July 1871, p. 5: The Freeman's Journal, in Sydney had carried a slightly fuller report of the celebration on 17 Jun, p. 7.
3. Ibid. 24 Sep 1871, p. 4.
4. Dr Chris Hanlon, Research on Fr Clementoni, Oct 2016, BAA.
5. Brisbane Courier, 12 Feb 1872, p. 3.
6. Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 14 Dec 1871, p. 3.
7. Dr Chris Hanlon, op. cit.
8. Northern Miner, Charter Towers, 30 May and 4 Jun 1874, p. 4.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.

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