The bronze statue of Archbishop Daniel Mannix was erected in the forecourt of the Cathedral in March 1999. The sculpture was created by English sculptor Nigel Boonham, who visited Australia when working on this commission, but executed the work overseas. The towering Mannix statue is believed to be approximately one and a half life-sized, and features a rough-textured surface effect.
A statue of Irish patriot Daniel O’Connell, a layman, was first mooted in 1875 by a committee of Irish Catholics to honour O’Connell’s role in fighting for religious freedom for Catholics in Ireland and Great Britain. It took years for enough money to be raised to build the life-sized statue, which was commissioned in 1886, cast in Belgium in 1888 and erected in 1890.
The statue was originally placed in front of the Cathedral but was moved to make way for the statue of Archbishop Mannix.
O’Connell, the Liberator, is depicted as an orator, with his left hand grasping his coat and one foot to the front. His right hand holds a petition signed by Irish Catholics calling for the repeal of the Act of union with England. The books by O’Connell’s feet symbolise his desire to achieve change by legal means rather than by violence.
The bronze statues of Italy’s patron saints St Francis and St Catherine were erected in December 2000. They were commissioned to reflect the contribution made to the Archdiocese by the Italian community.
The statues were made by Melbourne sculptor Louis Laumen, who used each saint’s stigmata—the physical wounds of Christ’s crucifixion given as a gift from God—as a focus for the sculptures.
St Francis is the first recorded occasion of someone receiving the stigmata, and the artist has positioned the saint’s hands in a gesture of ‘bewilderment’ at receiving the stigmata. The design of his face was informed by a written description by a contemporary of Francis.
St Catherine is depicted during a vision that she had of Christ offering her a choice of a crown of gold or a crown of thorns, as she accepts the crown of thorns. The statue shows the crown of thorns actually impaling her hands as a sign of the stigmata.
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A bust of Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac was given to the Cathedral by the Victorian Croatian community to remind visitors of his heroism and faithfulness. As an archbishop during World War II, Stepinac helped people to escape Nazi persecution, but after the war, the Communists held a mock trial, finding him guilty of collaborating with the Nazis and sentencing him to 16 years’ hard labour. Despite his imprisonment in 1953, Pope Pius XII made Stepinac a Cardinal in defiance of the Communist government of Yugoslavia. He died in 1960, while still under house arrest, and was proclaimed Blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
The bust also acknowledges the contribution of the Croatian community to the life and culture of Melbourne. Sculpted by Mladen Mikulin, it and was formally unveiled on Saturday 10 February 2001.