Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Chapel's treasured history

Celebrations for the centenary of our Lady of Perpetual Succour Chapel at the Convent of Mercy were attended by a wide cross section of the community, and looking back through history, support for the Sisters has been ongoing since their arrival in 1879.

Construction of the beautiful Romanesque Chapel in 1924-25 is no exception with the wider community stepping up to support the project and the Sisters who had pioneered secondary education in the town.

At the blessing and dedication of the chapel in 1925, Mayor of Gunnedah, Alderman Emill Westerweller, congratulated the Sisters on their achievement: “The place showed perfection and reflected credit on the architect and workmen,” he said.

He wished all success and though not all of the same creed, they could help each other. He thought a friendly feeling existed in Gunnedah and hoped it would continue. The Sisters’ lives were devoted to the service of God and the good of others. The education they gave to their pupils was equal to any, the proof of which was the results of recent examinations.

In announcing the total cost of the building, Mr Schuback offered his congratulations to the Reverend Mother, the architect Mr O’Connor, the builder Mr Burg. The total cost of the building as 5695 pounds, with donations on the day totalling 620 pounds, while other monies received took the total receipts to 1561 pounds.

Inside the chapel, the fittings had also been installed due to generous donations from parishioners and the community.

Friends and families of the Sisters donated the stained-glass windows as memorials to their deceased relatives and friends. The carpets of the chapel were donated by the Flynn family whose daughter, Sr Mary Kevin Flynn, was the first Sister to make her religious profession in this chapel, on February 9, 1925, the day after the opening of the building. On the same day, the first reception of novices Sr Mary Assumption Keleher, Sr Mary Pius Dick and Sr Mary Ambrose (Duff) were held. The first funeral in the new chapel was a farewell to one of the pioneering Sisters of the Gunnedah Congregation, Sr Mary Berchmans Smart, who died on February 11, 1925.

The Sisters of Mercy had previously created a chapel in the western wing of the Convent in 1894 and the beautiful rose window above the altar was transferred to the new chapel. The window honours the memory of Mother Mary Aloysius O’Driscoll. Appointed Mother Superior of the autonomous Gunnedah Congregation in 1887.

Inside the chapel, the Shrine of the Holy Face of Jesus, was donated by the family of well-known businessman Alfred Bacon, a stock and station agent in Gunnedah. In January 1928, Miss Bacon donated 100 pounds to the Sisters for the creation of this shrine. Along with the statues of Our Lady and the Sacred Heart.

The beautiful stained-glass window above the altar was erected in three panels, with donations by Mr C. McEnery in memory of Mrs & Mrs James McEnery. Sr Mary Catherine McEnery entered the Congregation of the Sisters of mercy in 1889.

The centre panel of the crucifixion in memory of Mother Mary Aloysius O’Driscoll was donated by her friends, with the Easter aspect in memory of James Lenord donated by Mrs Lenord of Breeza.Their daughter Sr Mary Baptist Lenord entered the Gunnedah convent in 1908.

The presidential chair in the sanctuary in memory of Elizabeth Campbell was presented by her family on July 6, 1948. Mother Mary Raymund Campbell, daughter of Elizabeth and Albert Campbell, entered the Gunnedah congregation in 1923. The marble pedestals were donated by ex-students of St Mary’s College in memory of Mother Mary Benignus Fitzgerald who entered the convent in 1908 and died in 1946.

The sacred vessels were also donated, including the Monstrance which was presented to Mother Mary Aloysius O’Driscoll the foundation superior (1887) of the Gunnedah Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy by AE Collins MLA.

A visit to Gunnedah for the show, by a Sydney Stock & Station Journal correspondent known as Globetrotter in May 1898, included a visit to the Convent of Mercy which he described it as a solid brick house, standing in about seven acres of ground, with a lovely garden about it.

“The first part of the convent was built about 17 years ago, but the largest portion of it is only about four years old,” he wrote.

The article continued: “They have about 40 young ladies in the high school, including boarders and day scholars, and about 50 children of all denominations in the primary school. The sisters do all the gardening and teach the children, and look sweet and helpful and cheerful— for what? For the glory of God.

“Men may sneer – and men do sneer – at the power that is in religion, but it is a weird and solemn power that keeps convents going. Here are the Sisters of Mercy living in Gunnedah teaching the children, helping the helpless, and living for a good purpose in hope of heaven, in a way that makes me wonder what life means.

“My idea of a nun always goes with a sweet, sad sincerity that does not smile for the things of earth; but the sisters at Gunnedah were as cheerful as the girls they taught. They were bright and merry and human, and you could feel that they were really good. The Reverend Mother and another lady nun took me over the convent, and it was a lovely place. The chapel was as beautiful a little place as the heart of a religious man could desire. The clean sweetness and holy calm were delightful.

“It’s a queer world this, and my memory will long hold a picture of the beautiful lady who told me the story of the Convent of Mercy, and as I look back to the show days at the town on the banks of the Namoi, my mind is filled with memories of that beautiful place where love and duty mingle.”