New Norcia - Pre-history

The historical ‘accident’ that led to the founding of New Norcia was the closure by an anti-clerical government and its confiscation of the property of all men’s monasteries in Spain in 1835. Next to the famous Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia was the venerable Benedictine monastery of San Martín Pinario. There, a little earlier, two young men had made monastic profession, promising to live a fully monastic and obedient life in stability with the community there, for life. Dom José Benito Serra, the senior of the two, went almost immediately in 1835 to continue monastic life in the renowned Abbey of the Most Holy Trinity of Cava, near Salerno in Italy. After a few disappointing years of waiting for his own monastery to re-open, Dom Rosendo Salvado followed Dom Serra to Cava, where he made his solemn profession in 1838 and was ordained priest early the next year. 
In 1844, fired by missionary zeal, the two monks applied to the authorities in Rome to be sent as missionaries wherever they decided, and were assigned to the newly appointed first Bishop of Perth, Rt Rev John Brady. 
When Brady’s large missionary party reached Perth in January 1846, the two Spanish Benedictines, an English Benedictine sub-deacon, Br Denis Tutell, and a French Benedictine novice, Dom Leander Fonteinne, together with an Irish catechist, John Gorman, were entrusted with the only one of three missions to the Aboriginal people that survived more than a few months. Tutell was ill and did not accompany the mission party, Gorman was accidentally shot dead in June that year, and Fonteinne was so mentally distraught following the accident that he had to abandon the mission and return to France. So it was the two Spaniards who were jointly responsible for the foundation of the mission that in time grew into New Norcia. Although, as its inaugural superior, Serra had responsibility for the mission, his appointment in 1849 as Co-adjutor Bishop of Perth diverted his missionary energy. After ten very active but fairly troubled years there, he left for Europe in 1859, never to return. So the first period of New Norcia’s history is usually known as

The Salvado era 1846 - 1900

Bishop Rosendo Salvado

The first fifty years of New Norcia's history are dominated by the towering figure of Bishop Rosendo Salvado (1814 - 1900). With fellow-Benedictine, Dom Joseph Serra, he founded New Norcia in 1846, spending the rest of his life making it one of the most progressive and successful missions in Australian history. Salvado's original vision was to create, among the indigenous peoples of the Victoria Plains, a Christian, largely self-sufficient village based on agriculture. However, after the decimation of the local populations by introduced diseases in the 1860's, he concentrated his activity on giving a practical education to the indigenous children who were brought to New Norcia from all over the state. Like other missionaries of the nineteenth century, his aim was to 'civilise' and evangelise according to the European ideals of the time, but he did so with a sympathy for indigenous culture that was rare in his day.

Salvado led a monastic community which, at its height, numbered nearly eighty men, most of whom were Spaniards and lay brothers. His frequent fundraising trips to Europe provided him with the means to acquire land, to construct buildings and to purchase books, vestments, art works and ritual objects as well as stock and equipment.

Practical success and his own personal charm combined to make Salvado both a notable Western Australian and an international figure in the Benedictine world. While on a trip to Rome in 1900, he died at the age of eighty-six. His body was brought back to New Norcia by the Community and interred in the Abbey Church.

The Monastic Town 1901 - 1950

Following Salvado's death in late 1900, New Norcia changed direction and, over the next fifty years, became less of a bush mission and more like a traditional European- style monastic settlement. Education and community care for indigenous peoples continued, but the emphasis shifted towards the educational and pastoral needs of the population of rural Western Australia. A great number of monks were ordained priests and more time was devoted to prayer, intellectual pursuits and artistic work.

This process began with the arrival from Spain in 1901 of Salvado's successor, Bishop Fulgentius Torres (1861 - 1914). Finding the mission in decline, he sold some its land to raise development funds. He personally designed and supervised the building of St Gertrude's Ladies College in 1908 and St Ildephonsus College for boys in 1913, staffing the former with Josephite Sisters and the later with Marist Brothers. In his fourteen years as Abbot, he carried out significant improvements throughout the town. Torres paid particular attention to the interior decoration of the town's buildings, bringing the Spanish woodcarver Juan (John) Casellas and the monk-artist Fr Lesmes Lopez to New Norcia to create many fine works that are now part of its rich artistic heritage.

Bishop Fulgentius Torres

The direction set for New Norcia by Torres was continued during the leadership of Dom Anselm Catalan, from 1916 to 1950. He added to the fabric of the town with the building of the Hostel - now the Hotel - and greatly encouraged the work of Dom Stephen Moreno, New Norcia's talented composer of religious music.

Change 1951 - 2000

Despite the social upheavals of two world wars, New Norcia had become a stable and orderly, but perhaps inward looking, religious settlement by the 1950's. However, from then until the 1990s it underwent considerable change.

Change occurred first within the monastery. In an effort to attract more Australians, the monastic lifestyle was adapted to better suit local conditions. The reforms of the Second Vatican council in the late 1960's further simplified and clarified both monastic life and worship. However, the number of monks at New Norcia continued gradually to decline.

Outside the monastery walls, the changes were even more dramatic. The number of parishes staffed by the monastery was reduced to just the parish of New Norcia, the Aboriginal schools closed in the 1970's and formal secondary education ceased with the closure of New Norcia Catholic College in 1991.

However, since the early 1980's, hospitality at New Norcia has flourished and diversified. The Museum and Art Gallery annually attracts thousands of visitors and also offers guided tours of the town each day. In addition to the Hotel, the Monastery Guesthouse provides accommodation for those seeking an experience of quiet and refreshment. The former college buildings are now used for school camps and adult workshops and conventions. In 1996 the monks established an Education Centre to further interpret the site for visiting students. New Norcia's traditional crafts of self-sufficiency, bread making and olive oil production have also been revived.