St. Francis' Church - Victoria's oldest Catholic Church

St. Francis' Church - West Window, Elizabeth Street

St Francis' Church, the oldest Catholic church in Victoria is located on the corner of Lonsdale Street and Elizabeth Street and is one of only three buildings in central Melbourne which predates the Gold Rush of 1851. The "mother church of Victoria", St Francis’ Church was commissioned by the Franciscan priest, Fr Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan, and the foundation stone was laid on 4 October 1841, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, to whom the church is dedicated. The first mass was celebrated in the completed nave of the church on 22 May 1842. The church was blessed and opened on 23 October 1845.


View south, Lonsdale Street

The building looming over the church is the Melbourne Central office building which is Melbourne's sixth tallest building, with 54 floors and standing 246m high.


St. Francis' 1845

In 1848 St. Francis became Melbourne's first Catholic Cathedral and was the Episcopal seat of Bishop James Alipius Goold O.S.A. and remained so until 1868, when the diocesan seat was moved to (the still unfinished) St Patrick's Cathedral.

Blessed Mary MacKillop (1842–1909) made her first communion at St Francis’ in 1850, the same year that Ned Kelly’s parents were married in the church. (Ned Kelly is Victoria's most (in)famous bushranger).
(Lithograph National Library Australia)


St.Francis' 1861

St Francis’ Church became a eucharistic shrine in 1929, when the Archdiocese of Melbourne entrusted its care to the Blessed Sacrament Congregation.

St. Francis' 1930

A religious community of priests and brothers (currently under the leadership of Fr Tom Knowles SSS) live in the monastery attached to St Francis’ Church. The St Francis’ community was the subject of the five-part television documentary Once Were Monks, which was broadcast on SBS Television in April 2000.

Today, St Francis is the busiest church in Australia, with forty-three masses and over 10,000 visiting worshippers each week.

St. Francis is listed with the Victorian Heritage Register, the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and the Australian Heritage Commission. Although there have been many changes made to the building, including the erection of a new tower to house the original 1853 bell imported from Dublin, the church remains essentially as it was designed by Samuel Jackson.

Today's Quote: Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words - St. Francis of Assisi.