Year 9 Bridges: Churches

Our cathedral is dedicated to St Patrick, the pioneering Irish bishop who faithfully and courageously led the Church in Ireland and who initiated many changes to that society.

Our cathedral also enjoys a rare distinction in design. The windows in the nave, unlike the usual stained-glass style, are made of translucent alabaster that gives the body of the building a golden glow. The lay people who pray and celebrate the sacred mysteries at ‘St Pat’s’ are placed in a luminous clearing and bathed in a glorious tint. The dignity of their baptism, friendship with Christ and membership of his body is affirmed in this unique hue.

The central spire is no longer the tallest structure in the Melbourne cityscape, nevertheless, for the friends of Christ, everything we celebrate about God’s love for us in the cathedral is meant to be heard throughout our city and state.

St Paul’s stands at the very heart of the City of Melbourne. In style, it echoes the grand Cathedrals of Europe. Designed by distinguished English revival architect William Butterfield, the Cathedral is built in the neo-Gothic transitional style, partly Early English and partly Decorated. Many consider St Paul’s to be Butterfield’s final masterpiece.

St Paul’s Cathedral has been an integral part of Christian Melbourne since the city’s foundation: it stands on the site where the first public Christian services in Melbourne were led by Dr Alexander Thomson in 1836.From 1836 to 1848 the site on which the Cathedral stands served as a corn market for the growing city. In 1848, it was granted to the Anglican Church to build the bluestone St Paul’s Parish Church. Consecrated in 1852, St Paul’s Church was used until 1885 when it was demolished to make way for the liturgical West-end of the present Cathedral.