MARY’S MOUNT HISTORICAL WALK
Station A – Welcome
The Mary’s Mount story began in 1921 when the Sisters purchased a 25 acre block of land in Gooseberry Hill with two small cottages side by side…
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Welcome
Sue Blair
Holy Family Parish Kalamunda
READ
From a humble beginning….A Mary’s Mount Success Story.
2021 marks the first hundred years of Mary’s Mount as a centre of Catholic education in the Hills. Over those many years, there would have been thousands of students who passed through its doors.
One extraordinary story is that of James Robert Knox.
James was born in Bayswater in 1914, the second of three sons of an Irish immigrant family from Kilkenny. James’ father, John Knox, was a storekeeper. Sadly, James’ mother, Alice, 22 years younger than her husband, is said to have been delicate and she died in 1923 aged only 33. What does “delicate” mean in the 1920s? We don’t know but it is quite possible that she was Consumptive, a major problem of the time.
One of the original nuns to establish Mary’s Mount, Sister Adelaide, who was the bubs teacher, is quoted as saying “James was only a little lad when I first knew him. The family had moved to Gooseberry Hill, where his mother died and so James was raised by his aunt.” James would have been about 7 or 8 years old when he commenced as one of the first pupils at the tiny school of 5 boarders and 12 day boys. He and his brothers may well have been three of these original day boys. Sister Adelaide continues,”Even then James had in his mind’s eye to become a priest”.
After school and a time as a tailor’s apprentice, James returned to studies and completed his secondary education at New Norcia in 1936. After five more years study of Theology and Canon Law the 27 year-old James Knox was ordained in Rome. The outbreak of World War Two prevented his return home to Australia, which may have led him to all sorts of opportunities he would not have had in his home country!
A time in the Vatican’s diplomatic service took James to Tokyo, Burma, Sri Lanka, India and then in 1951 Pope Pius XII named him a bishop based in Mombasa, Kenya.
The extraordinary life of this Bayswater/ Gooseberry Hill boy continued. In 1967 after many years away from Australia James was appointed Archbishop of Melbourne after the death of the controversial Daniel Mannix. He proved to be an extraordinary force as Vatican 11 was implemented and many rationalizing and structural changes were made. (Much of this can be followed in detail in numerous on-line articles).
In 1973 Pope Paul VI named James Robert Knox a Cardinal.
In 1982, the Cardinal had become quite ill and died in 1983 after a stroke. His remains were interred in the crypt at St Patrick’s in Melbourne, Australia.
The early teacher of the young motherless James and his brothers, Sister Adelaide, outlived her young charge and died, after a long retirement at St Emilie’s, aged 100 in 1983.
We wish Mary’s Mount staff, students and families well, in this their Centenary Year!
