WORDS Penny Edman

Most Australian Catholics know the stories of historical figures like St Joseph, St Peter and St Francis of Assisi. But other saints, like St Andrew Dung-Lac, St Maroun or St Filadelfo, also have their day in the sun in communities around Australia.

As a Church, Australia’s Catholics are not known for their public piety and most devotions to saints are exercised in times of trouble. Yet there are communities within this vast country in which saints are revered and publicly celebrated.

Take for example the Church of St Anne’s in metropolitan Perth, WA, and its Croatian community. For more than 20 years the community has celebrated the feast of St Anne on the Sunday nearest to the feast day, July 26.

Croatian chaplain Fr Nicola Cabraja says the celebration draws on the European tradition of celebrating the feast day of the saint to whom the local church is dedicated.

The day of faith and cultural festivities begins with Mass at 10am followed by a procession around the church. Then the community moves into the cultural activities that have as their focal point a Festival of Song. Each contestant is permitted to sing one song. It does not need to be religious, but the song must be sung in Croatian.

‘The people love it’, says Fr Cabraja.

On the other side of the country, the Italian community in the cane growing area of Silkwood, in north Queensland, celebrates the feast of the Three Saints.

Tortured and horrifically martyred in 253AD for refusing to renounce their faith, the three Sicilian brothers Alfio, 21, Filadelfo, 20, and Cirino, 19, have May 10 as their feast day. Silkwood celebrates the feast on the first Sunday in May, and 2010 will be the 60th anniversary of the event.

The day begins with at 10am with Mass in Italian. A hand-carved statue of the saints is unveiled in a loft above the altar, then lowered onto a gold-leaf vara, or carriage, and taken in procession through Silkwood accompanied by a brass band and children clothed in Sicilian national dress.

While the day’s commemorations are intensely traditional, faith-filled and steeped in Silkwood history, a trend is emerging in which culture and friendship are taking a more prominent role, according to feast day treasurer and coordinator Alf Strano.

Silkwood, with a day-to-day population of about 200, swells to 5000 for the celebration, with people travelling from as far away as Melbourne.

Mr Strano readily admits that as a teenager he was embarrassed by the celebrations. Today, he has a one-word answer to why he is so committed: ‘Faith’.

On a much smaller but no less devout scale is the celebration of the feast of the Protection of Our Lady. From the Byzantine tradition, it links writings from about 200 AD, in which Mary weaves a purple and scarlet veil, with a tradition from Constantinople from about the 9th century.

It is said that on the night of a severe earthquake as the people gathered in the church to pray for survival, Our Lady appeared to them and spread a veil of purple and scarlet over them.

Celebrated by Russian Catholics on 28 October, the feast of Our Lady’s Protection is considered the feast of the motherhood of Our Lady over the Church.

Melbourne’s Russian Catholic Community celebrates the feast day at St Brigid’s Parish, in North Fitzroy. Archpriest Father Lawrence Cross says devotion to Our Lady is particularly strong for Russians as they believed that it was only through her protection that they survived the years of atheistic communism.

Meanwhile, the feast of St Andrew Dung-Lac and companions is not so much a physical celebration for Australia’s Catholic Vietnamese as it is one of spiritual unity across geographic divides.

The feast, on 24 November, unites Catholic Vietnamese in Australia with others around the world, but especially in Vietnam.

Father Viet Huy Nguyen SJ, of Adelaide, said that the Vietnamese Catholic community remembered Andrew and his 116 companions on the Sunday closest to the feast day.

‘We make a point of remembering because it is part of our faith, the faith of our forefathers and mothers’, he says.

The feast recognises the 117 men, women and children martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. Andrew Dung-Lac, a diocesan priest, was beheaded on December 21, 1839. He was beatified in 1900 and canonised in 1988.

‘It is significant for us as Vietnamese refugees because our people are still being persecuted by the Communists’, says Fr Nguyen. ‘We are proud of our faith and we are proud of the endurance that faith has given us.’

For Australia’s 150,000 Maronites, St Maroun’s feast day on 9 February is cause for days of celebration as it is the patronal feast of the tradition worldwide. St Maroun’s Cathedral, Redfern, is the home to Australia’s largest Maronite community, and the focus of the celebrations in Sydney.

The day itself features a solemn Mass led by Bishop Ad Abikaram, but the spiritual and social preparations begin several days earlier. The spiritual activities include Masses, times of reflection and prayer, while the social activities centre around Lebanese food, music and folklore.

Dean of St Maroun’s Cathedral Fr Youssef Abouzeid explained that Maronite Catholics were attached to the example of St Maroun, a priest who lived a hermit’s life in the fourth century and whose life strongly influenced the people of northern Syria and Lebanon. His legacy of a spirituality based on family, holiness and witness was cause for celebration.

As Australia continues to develop as a multi-cultural nation, the Catholic Church here will be enriched by celebrations drawn from long histories, distant lands and often persecution. They will remind us that as Church, we are family beyond racial and geographic boundaries. And at the end of the day, regardless of expression or size, they are underpinned by one important ingredient – faith.

Pictured: Young girls dressed in traditional Sicilian costume with devotees of the Three Saints pushing the carriage through the streets of Silkwood. 

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