Rev Joseph Ah Lee

Title:

Rev

First Name:

Joseph

Middle Names:

Preferred Name:

Surname:

Ah Lee

Order:

Date of Birth:

Place of Birth:

Country of Birth:

China

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:

Find A Grave URL:


Appointments Table

Diocese
Place
Role
Start Day
Start Month
Start Year
End Day
End Month
End Year
Source
Melbourne BallaratLinane Vol 1
Melbourne CastlemaineLinane Vol 1
Items per page:
0 of 0


Biographical Notes

Ballarat, Castlemaine, South Melbourne, Brighton, Vic

---

The Bulletin, Sydney, 22 October 1887, p 12, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-513537540:

The colonies are making no provision in their Anti-Chinese Bills for the free admission of Chinkie parsons. One of the most gentlemanly-looking clergymen in the diocese of Sydney is a Chinese priest of the Anglican faith; and some years ago there was a Chinese R.C. priest in Victoria, the Rev. Father Ah Lee. He was great at music, but gave up the learning of intelligible English as a hopeless job. When he "said Mass" on Sunday and had to announce, perhaps, that "Next Thursday will be a day of fast and abstinence," he had to get this notice a week before to study and rehearse. His Mongolian Reverence used to teach the Gregorian music to the altar-boys at the Melbourne Cathedral, but the young wretches used to play up all kinds of pranks in class, and the only word of condemnation and remonstrance in the vernacular which the almond-eyed divine could master was a forcible "Humbug!" When Patsy O'Hooligan or young Tim Fogarty became obnoxiously obstreperous, Father Ah Lee would wave his arm wildly in space and exclaim in vehement protest, "Humbug! Humbug!! Humbug!!!" Sometimes, when the church choir was a bit florid, he used to tell them they performed only "smusementmoosick." The Rev. Joseph Ah Lee some time since returned to China. If he's not poleaxed by his heathen countrymen, he'll he poll-taxed when he comes back to Australia.

---

From the Land of the Rising Sun
Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 1, 1979, p 16:

b. Nampoo; ed. Canton and Lisbon; family forbears converted by St. Francis Xavier; Arr. for service in Melb. Diocese in 1865; chaplain to Chinese communities in Ballarat, Castlemaine etc.; poorly treated by Bishop Goold and priests; fluent Latin speaker and writer;·returned to Macao in 1871. No further tracing.

Ref.:
Special File in M.D.H.C. holdings (Torquay), consisting of many letters from Mr Kevin Kelly, former Ambassador to Portugal, now living in Canberra.

---

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