The life of an “ordinary bloke”-turned-renowned architect and Catholic priest is being examined to decide if he will be named Western Australia’s first saint. Source: ABC News.
Msgr John Cyril Hawes spent about 24 years in WA and left a lasting impression on the Midwest with a trail of his holy buildings scattered throughout the region.
Msgr Hawes worked in the Bahamas, regional WA, travelled to America and finally settled in the Bahamas.
Now, 70 years since his death, a push from the Geraldton Diocese to advance his canonisation is progressing, with an archivist recently travelling overseas to interview people who crossed paths with the famous architect.
Msgr Hawes was born in 1876 in Richmond, England, into a middle-class Anglican family. He developed a fascination with architecture before converting to Catholicism later in life.
Throughout the Midwest he built a famous body of work in the heart of WA country towns such as Geraldton’s St Francis Xavier Cathedral and Our Lady of Mt Carmel in Mullewa.
Perth Catholic Church archivist and historian Odhran O’Brien is researching Msgr Hawes’s life to gather evidence for the Diocese of Geraldton’s case for sainthood.
Mr O’Brien told ABC Radio Perth that Msgr Hawes led a “remarkable” life.
“I think he’s a remarkable character for a number of reasons; the fact that he was such an ordinary bloke in a lot of ways but also was an Anglican who started off as an architect … then converted to Catholicism and became a priest,” Mr O’Brien said.
Mr O’Brien said it was Msgr Hawes’s “mission” to build holy buildings for regional communities.
“He was living out his faith by building these churches [and] responding to the needs of the local community to provide them with a place to gather,” he said.
In 2017, Bahamas Archbishop Patrick Pinder suggested promoting the cause of Msgr Hawes for sainthood to Geraldton Diocese’s chancellor Fr Robert Cross.
Now, more than a decade later, Mr O’Brien has travelled to the Bahamas, the US and England to gather evidence for the diocese’s cause for Msgr Hawes’s canonisation.
Fr Cross said the process of canonisation was “meticulous” and took many years.
FULL STORY
John Cyril Hawes’s canonisation push is progressing. Could he become WA’s first saint? (By Piper Duffy and Amber Cunningham, ABC News)
