Our History

St Canice’s was completed in 1889 and was opened on 5 May of that year. Our church was designed by architect John Bede Barlow (1860–1925), a specialist in ecclesiastical architecture who designed nine churches in total, including St Canice’s, St Francis’ in Paddington, and later St Brigid’s in Marrickville, as well as a number of chapels and convents.

Our namesake, St Canice (515/16–600), was an early Irish monk and missionary during the early mediaeval period. He is one of the most popular Celtic saints in Ireland and in Scotland (where he is called Kenneth) and patron saint of the shipwrecked. Our namesake was chosen by Cardinal Patrick Moran (1830–1911) in 1887, the first Irish Archbishop of Sydney and Australia’s first cardinal.

Our early history coincided with ‘the Irish phase’ of our Sydney Catholic story, when the man who would become our nation’s first cardinal, the Irish Patrick Moran, reached the city in 1884. Prior to arriving in Australia, Moran had served as the Bishop of Ossory and was familiar with Canice’s burial ground in the ancient city.

Within a few weeks of his arrival, he led a group of Sydney laymen to Manly by boat to show them land where he planned to build a residence and seminary. Our founding father, John Hughes (1825–1885), was in that group, without whom St Canice’s would never have been built.

Hughes, an Irish Catholic, had arrived in Australia with his parents and siblings as a ‘bounty immigrant’ on the Crusader in 1840. He opened his own grocery business on Market and George Streets in 1851 and soon after was an established wholesale merchant and importer. As Hughe’s wealth increased, so did his generosity to the church.

In May 1885, Moran was summoned back to Rome where he was made a cardinal. While he was overseas, Hughes purchased the land on which St Canice’s stands and donated it to the church shortly before his death.

After Hughes’ death in 1885, his widow, Susan (née Sharkey, 1835–1907) decided to proceed with the church and pay half its building costs as a memorial to her husband. The Hughes family contributed approximately £7,500 in total (£3,500 for the land and £4,000 for construction) – an enormous sum at the time.

Susan proposed her friend and nephew, John Bede Barlow, as a suitable architect for the new church. Barlow, a significant early figure in the establishment of the New South Wales Institute of Architects, designed the church to be practical but warm in atmosphere using Victorian Academic Gothic style. Its original design included a 80-foot-tall tower with a spire, but this was never built.

Our stained glass windows show scenes from St Canice’s life, with the central window behind the altar depicting men being tossed about on a stormy sea telling the story of Canice becoming the patron saint of the shipwrecked.

While not a parish when it was first consecrated in 1889, being part of Sacred Heart Darlinghurst and later administered by St Mary’s Cathedral, St Canice’s has long been an important social centre for its parishioners and the local community.

After St Canice’s became a parish in 1940, a new school building was constructed – the present Parish Hub – designed to complement the recently completed presbytery. Until this point, the school had been conducted in the basement of the church, but this was no longer large enough for the needs of the parish.

Providing free meals and a welcoming community to people around the Kings Cross area, St Canice’s Kitchen was opened in 1988 and has run continuously since its inception. Since 1990, St Canice’s has been conducted by the Jesuits on behalf of the Archdiocese of Sydney. They have instigated many programs run from our parish, which offers a welcoming community open to all.