As you enter St Monica’s Church in Mount Alexander road Moonee Ponds you discover an area of great tranquillity and there is something magical about finding this space unexpectedly. The blue leadlight windows are successful in illuminating the church beautifully while telling the story of the crucifixion.
The strength and dimensions of its architecture is impressive it has wide aisles and tall columns with the nave and columns 10 metres high forming the main feature.
Saint Monica’s was designed and built to last several hundred years, it was constructed during the Great Depression 1929-34. The church, costing 25000 pounds, provided desperately needed work in the Moonee Ponds area. It was officially opened and blessed by Archbishop Mannix on the 16 December 1934.
This is the third St Monica’s Church on this site, the first two were modest in comparison to the present church. The original church could only accommodate 350, it was blessed by Archbishop Goold and dedicated to Saint Monica on Sunday 25 April 1890.
The history of the parish on this site dates back to 1880 when the original Catholic school was relocated there from a site near Glenbervie railway station. In 1891 the foundation stone of a new red brick school at Saint Monica’s was laid. In 1901 St Monica’s presbytery was opened.
The first resident Roman Catholic priest at Keilor was Father Matthew Downing, appointed there in August 1854, and it was not long before his mission was defined as including Essendon, Flemington, Broadmeadows, Bulla, Sunbury and Darraweit Guim.
After the gold rush of 1851, Keilor ceased to be important but Essendon and Moonee Ponds continued to grow. And because of this growth, in 1884, a permanent church was built in Mt Alexander road where the present church now stands, despite the fact it had been based in Keilor for many years.St Monica’s Moonee Ponds has a proud history of providing Catholic leaders. In 1979, seven practising Bishops had associations with the Parish of St Monica's. The Archbishop, Sir Frank Little, was born about a kilometre from St Monicas, was parish priest there in 1973 before reaching the office of Archbishop in 1974. The other Bishops are Bishop Bernard Stewart, of Bendigo. Bishop J. A. Morgan of Canberra Goulburn, Bishop Francis Thomas, of Geraldton, WA, Bishop Ronald Mulkearne of Ballarat and Bishop John Kelly and Bishop Joseph O Connell both of Melbourne.
I read somewhere that the average time a tourist spends looking at one of the great cathedral of Europe is rarely more that half an hour. Saint Monica is so beautiful that it could easily hold your attention for this amount of time.
Bibliography:
Aldous, Grant, The Stop-over that Stayed, City of Essendon, 1979, pp10, 119, 126
