Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, pp 40-41:
Fr Constantine Rossolini

My second placement as a priest was to Gayndah in 1962. I was interested in the parish baptismal records which commenced in May in 1871. The celebrant was Fr Rossolini. In 2002, Father Pat Tynan published a biography Constantine Rossolini Pioneer Priest of the Burnett. In preparing a short account of Fr Rossolini among the early priests of our diocese I found no better resource that Fr Tynan's book. Thank you Fr Pat.

The ancient abbatial church of St Appolinare lies midway between the historic city of Iesi, near the Adriatic Coast of Italy and rural town of Cupramontana. They are fourteen kilometres apart in the Italian Marches region. … The Abbey came into existence in the eleventh century. … The lands once farmed by the Benedictine community, from the 19th century passed into the hands of the local peasantry. … The Rossolini's were one of those families. Constantino's father, Carlo, was a farmer.
San Appolinare, being an abbatial rather than a Parish Church, did not have its own cemetery. Baptisms were also registered at the church of Saint Leonard in Cupramontana. The records show that Constantino Rossolini was baptised on 5th June, 1845.(1)

By the time Constantino Rossolini had begun his studies in the minor Seminary in Iesi … in the early 1860s … the bishop was Carlo Luigi Morichini. … Rossolini studied at the Collegio Romano in Rome, the great seminary for the diocesan clergy conducted by the Jesuits.(2)

Sometime after Rossolini's ordination in 1867, (Cardinal) Morichini had to choose a new secretary and it was with confidence that his superior appointed Rossolini to that position.(3)

The First Vatican Council convoked by Pope Pius IX opened on 8 December 1869. With turbulent times in Italy the Council abruptly closed when Rome was invaded on 20 September 1870. Bishop Quinn attended the council. Fr Tynan writes:

Had the bishop of Brisbane in Australia already been in contact at this point to ask if Morichini had any priest available to staff his new diocese which was bigger than his native Ireland? Quinn would have known of Morichini's important diplomatic work for Pius IX while Quinn was a student in Rome.
Quinn approached the Cardinal Bishop of Iesi and several other Fathers of the Council with his need for more priests to staff his new diocese. Morichini demonstrated his broad vision of the church when he told him he would get him three priests for his new diocese of Queensland – his own secretary Constantine Rossolini, Fr Benedict Scortechini also from Cupramontana and Fr Jerome Davadi from Montecarotto.(4)

These three Italian priests travelled to Ireland to spend some time being tutored in English. This tutoring continued on board the vessel the Storm King, leaving on 25 November 1870 and arriving in Brisbane on 28th February 1871. The tutor on board was Jeremiah Long 'who was to make a mark as the grand old man of Catholic Education in Queensland'.(5)

Shortly after his arrival, Fr Rossolini was posted to Gayndah. He arrived in Maryborough on 27 April. After a few days he took the two day coach journey to Gayndah, with a night's stay-over at Degilbo. He carried out his first service in Gayndah on Sunday 7 May (three services). The baptismal register there shows his first baptism on 9 May 1871.

The people of Gayndah today proudly claim that it is the oldest town in Queensland. … Gayndah is an aboriginal word. The Gayndah area originally belonged to the Thibura people of the Waka Waka language group. Henry Russell first explored the Burnett area in 1843. Before any priests were stationed permanently in Gayndah, Dean Rigney had performed several marriages there and Archbishop Polding had performed a marriage there in 1858.(6)

Fr Tynan notes that Fr Rossolini resided with the Connolly family on his arrival. Priests ministering in Gayndah resided with that family. Fr Edward O'Donoghue came from Ipswich in 1863 and proceeded to erect a church. This simple, possibly frail, building was destroyed in a storm before it could be used. Fr O'Donoghue had returned to England prior to its completion. Fr Pierce Power served a few months in Gayndah prior to his tragic drowning in the Burnett River in 1865. Following the death of Fr Power priests from Nanango and Rockhampton ministered to the Gayndah Catholics. Fr McGuiness visited from Rockhampton on which occasions he resided with the Connolly family.

A shepherd by the name of Dingle discovered copper on his Mt Perry run in 1868. Fr Tynan presents interesting statistics. The Mt Perry Mail reported Mt Perry's population rising from 10 in 1871 to 800 in early 1872 and to 4000 in 1873, while Gayndah's population was 500. Baptisms in Gayndah fell from 17 in 1871 to 7 in 1873 while at Mt Perry they rose to 17 from nothing in the same period. Therefore ministering to Mt Perry became of large part of Fr Rossolini's mission. In 1872, Fr Rossolini advertised, in the Mount Perry Mail, calling for 20,000 feet of sawn timber. The same paper reported in its first edition of 1873:

The erection of the Mount Perry Catholic chapel was completed on Christmas Eve. It is a neat looking building 34 feet by 24 in the Gothic style of architecture and commanding an excellent view of the town. … A day school in connection with the Catholic church in this town was opened on Monday morning last under the supervision of Miss Bertheau … We hear the number is about fifty.
The entry in Pugh's Almanac for 1877 seems to indicate that he (Rossolini) may have decided to live in Mount Perry instead of Gayndah, as it was by now a far bigger centre. … Rossolini had already moved to Bundaberg as his chief base when the railway line (between Mt Perry and Bundaberg) was finally begun in December 1878. Since many of those working on the line were his parishioners from both Mount Perry or Bundaberg he saw it as part of his pastoral duty to visit them during the almost three years it took to build.(7)

Fr Tynan writes at length of Rossolini's relationship with the Sisters of St Joseph:

No matter how difficult the circumstances of one's work a great deal can be endured if there exists a harmonious relationship with the people one works with. This was certainly true in the case of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and their work in Bundaberg with Fr Constantine Rossolini in the short period they were there, 1876-1880.

The foundation stone of a new church, a dream of Fr Rossolini, was laid by Bishop Dunne on 10 October 1886. It was opened by Archbishop Dunne on 13 May 1888. Allowing for extension it was extended in 1926. This beautiful church is now heritage listed.

As Fr Rossolini's health deteriorated, he had an assistant for some years; first Father Andrew Monaghan and then Fr John Mimnagh, who was to succeed him as parish priest.

Fr Rossolini died of cancer on 7 November 1893. He was buried in Bundaberg.

Footnotes
1. Patrick J Tynan, Constantine Rossolini – Pioneer Priest of the Burnett (1845-1893), 2002, p. 1.
2. Ibid. p. 3.
3. Ibid. p. 11.
4. Ibid. pp. 12 and 13.
5. Ibid. p. 16.
6. Ibid. p. 25.
7. Ibid. pp. 31 to 33.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.