Eris O'Brien (20 September 1895 – 28 Feb 1974) was an Australian

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

of the

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and historian. He was Auxiliary Bishop of

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

(1948–1951) and the second archbishop of the Canberra-Goulburn (1953–1966).

Early life

Eris Michael O'Brien was born in Condobolin, New South Wales, the eldest of three children of Terence O'Brien, a native-born police constable, and his Irish-born wife Bertha, née Conroy. The family moved to Sydney and Eris studied at St Aloysius' College. After training at St Patrick's Seminary, Manly he was ordained a priest in 1918.

Priesthood

O'Brien served in several Sydney parishes and wrote two books on the history of the Catholic Church in nineteenth-century Australia, ''The Life and Letters of Archpriest John Joseph Therry'' (1922, also titled ''The Foundation of Catholicism in Australia''), and ''The Dawn of Catholicism in Australia'', the story of Fr Jeremiah O'Flynn (1928). In 1934 he was granted leave to attend the

Catholic University of Louvain The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, Belgium, where he gained a Ph.D. (1936), and the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...

, Dublin, where he gained an M.A. His resulting book, ''The Foundation of Australia (1786-1800)'' (London, 1937), was well received. In 1940 he was instrumental in founding the

Australian Catholic Historical Society The Australian Catholic Historical Society discusses Australian Catholic history via a newsletter and meetings, and is focussed around Sydney. Leadership The society was founded in 1940 in Sydney, by a group of students of Australian Catholic h ...

.E. O'Brien, Australian Catholic Historical Society inaugural address, 28 Nov 1940, ''Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society'', 12 (1990), 6-19. Back in Sydney he lectured part-time at

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

and was parish priest of

Bankstown Bankstown is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 19 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Canterbury-Bankstown region. Bankstown is the administrative centre ...

and

Neutral Bay Neutral Bay is a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Neutral Bay is around 1.5 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council. Neutral Bay takes ...

Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney

O'Brien was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney in 1948. The same year he was a member of the Australian delegation to the third session of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...

in Paris and sat on the committee dealing with human rights. He became Auxiliary Archbishop of Sydney in 1951.

Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn

O'Brien was made Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn in 1953 and dealt with rapid expansion of church parishes and schools in Canberra. He cautiously supported the Goulburn School Strike in 1962, which protested against lack of subsidies to Church schools and played a role in gaining state aid for Church schools

Death

The Archbishop resigned in 1967 due to failing health and moved back to Sydney. He died in

Richmond, New South Wales Richmond is a historic town in northwest Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Richmond is in the local government area of the City of Hawkesbury and is part of the Sydney metropolitan area. It is located 19 metres above sea level on the alluvia ...

in 1974, and was interred in St Christopher's Cathedral, Canberra.

References

External links

Catholic-HierarchyAustralian Dictionary of Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Eris 1895 births 1975 deaths Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Roman Catholic archbishops of Canberra and Goulburn Participants in the Second Vatican Council Australian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Australia People educated at St Aloysius' College (Sydney) 20th-century Australian historians People from Condobolin