POLDING, JOHN BEDE. - Archbishop of Sydney, b. 18 Nov. 1794 at Liverpool, d. 16 March 1877 at Sydney. Orphaned in childhood, he was adopted by his uncle J. Bede Brewer, general president of the English Benedictines. He entered the Benedictine Order on 15 July 1810 and made his profession the following year. Ordained priest on 4 March 1819, he lived at the monastery of Acton until 1834.
In 1833 he was offered the bishopric of Madras, but Polding declined on grounds of health. Consecrated titular Bishop of Hierocaesarea on 27 June 1834, he accepted the apostolic vicariate of New South Wales and Tasmania and set out for Australia. On arrival in Sydney he immediately devoted himself to energetic pastoral work, which bore abundant fruit for the growth of the Catholic faith in those distant lands. He returned temporarily to England in 1841 and also visited Rome, where he proposed the establishment of a Catholic hierarchy in Australia. Accordingly, in 1842 the apostolic vicariate of New Holland was divided into three dioceses (Sydney, Hobart and Adelaide), and on 9 April of the same year Gregory XVI raised Polding to the archbishopric of Sydney and primate of Australia. Arriving in Sydney in 1843 as archbishop, he was met with hostility from public opinion, which, stirred up by the Anglican Church, resented the establishment of a Catholic hierarchy in the country. He governed the see of Sydney for more than thirty years: in Sydney he founded St John’s College and at Lyndhurst the College of St Mary. He did not attend the Vatican Council in 1870 because, falling ill during the journey, he was obliged to return to his residence.
Among his writings are: Libellus precum ad usum sodalitatis S. Gregorii Magni sub patrocinio B. M. Virginis; Instructions and Devotions for the Afflicted and Sick; Regula S. P. N. Benedicti cum declarationibus ad usum monachorum S. Mariae Sydneyensis.