Father James BreenPrint Page

St Benedict's Church was erected to commemorate Father James Benedict Breen, a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, who arrived in Brisbane aboard the sailing ship “Sunda” in 1865, just four years after Brisbane’s first bishop, James Quinn. 

The foundation stone of the church was laid on the 18th March 1917 and the church was opened on the 12th August 1917. 

Father Breen had come to the colony in response to Bishop Quinn’s desperate need for teachers to staff his three educational establishments: at St James’, Fortitude Valley; St Kilian’s, South Brisbane; and St Mary’s, Ipswich. Ultimately, it was to Ipswich that he was to be assigned.

In Ipswich, Breen felt the call to priestly service in the Brisbane Church. He returned to Dublin in 1873, to undertake seminary studies at All Hallows’ College. On their completion, he was ordained priest, in 1876, and returned to Queensland once more.

During the years that followed, Breen was attached to various churches throughout Brisbane. His training as a teacher disclosed a facility for writing, which was employed in various journalistic ventures. For a time, he was on the board of Bishop Quinn’s newspaper “The Australian”; and, towards the end of his life, after the commencement of “The Age” by the Crofton family, in October 1892, his work was found in its pages also. His style was always direct and to the point; disdaining flights of oratory in favour of a descriptive brevity.

Such was his popularity, that when he died, on December 22, 1916, Brisbane paid him high tribute with crowds lining Elizabeth Street as his funeral cortege passed.

Father Breen Foundation Stone 1917

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Dedication