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TheRecord
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"Be indefatigable in your purpose and with undaunted spirit resist iniquity and try to conquer evil with good, having before your eyes the reward of those who combat for Christ." -BISHOP MATTHEW GIBNEY 1874
THE PARISH. THE NATION. THE WORLD. .WWW.therecord.corn.ilu
Western Australia's award-winning Catholic newspaper since 1874 - Wednesday September 9, 2009
Perth, Western Australia $2
Early Perth Bishop Griver's daily reality an affirmation of Love
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• By Peter Rosengren and Robert Hiini
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The wearer: Bishop Martin Griver had a reputation for sanctity, reinforced after his death when it was found he had long worn wooden crosses beneath his clothes as a mortification. Mortification, which can take any form of denial of self, has been a common practice among Christians for two millennia, most notably during penitential seasons such as Lent. PHOTO. ARCHDIOCESAN ARCHIVES
lthough words can be used beautifully, love is expressed best in actions. The crosses above were those worn front and back against the body - for years and probably decades - by Bishop Martin Griver of Perth who died in 1886. They were found in a small contamer together with the Bishop's body when it was removed from St Mary's Cathedral in 2007 as the building was being prepared for its $32 million completion. Despite Hollywood's prurient fascination and exaggeration beyond recognition of mortification in movies such as The Da Vinci Code, items such as these and associated practices of bodily mortification would have been much more common in Bishop Griver's day, said Fr Robert Cross, a Perth priest who has been carrying out archaeological studies around the cathedral site. As Bishop of Perth, Griver guided the young diocese through a difficult period following the departure of Bishop Jose
Maria Serra when Serra returned to Europe in July 1859. Griver also built St Mary's Cathedral, completed first in 1865 and now nearing its final completion in December this year. Griver invited Benedictine Bishop Salvado of New Norcia to solemnise the foundation stone of the cathedral in 1863. He also had a special concern for the welfare of convicts, the poor and orphan children. To gaze upon these wooden crosses, each about 10 x 7 cm in height, is to be confronted by the mystery of Christianity - that the path to eternal life has been won by the things we all want to avoid - suffering, pain, self-sacrifice and acceptance of the seeming incomprehensibility of death. Their metal studded protrusions, measuring about 5mm in depth and worn towards the body both in front and at the back, were bound to Bishop Martin Griver's body and reportedly only discovered after his death. The discomfort and pain they caused their wearer for the many years he wore them must have been great. Fr Cross told The Record that, as a doctor, Bishop Griver would have been aware of what his body
A HANDWRITTEN NOTE by Bishop Griver's successor, Bishop Matthew Gibney, and signed by him sets out the basic facts of these wooden crosses with spikes worn towards the wearer's body. It reads: "+ Cross worn by Bishop Griver, & taken off his back after death." The '+' before Bishop Gibney's signature indicates the episcopal rank of the signatory. The crosses were found in their container with Bishop Griver's body when it was disinterred during the early stages of the completion of St Mary's Cathedral. That Bishops Griver and Gibney were buried beneath the floor of the cathedral had long been known, but where had remained PHOTOS: PETER ROSENGREN something of a longstanding mystery.
could handle in this particular pursuit of spiritual growth. To the modern mind, of course, it seems incomprehensible to the point of revulsion. All the things we look for as guides to happiness today are absent: there is no glamour, there are no little statues awarded the wearer in ceremonies flooded with the wealthy and famous, unctuously and fatuously oozing public admiration for the object of their flattery; they did not make their wearer slimmer and sexier; they didn't influence interest rates. Everything that our contemporary society regards as important seems completely removed from the reality that they represent. And yet, in the last 18 months the very thing the global community worships - the economy - has been shown to be utterly false and empty, an idol with feet of clay and eyes that do not see. Its temples have come crashing down, together with its high priests and oracles, those whose every word, utterance and prediction issued as they daily administered the rites of the Bourse (the foreign exchange market) have proved to be so disastrously wrong. These little
crosses are, admittedly, confronting. They are not pleasant. They may seem extreme. Perhaps a better word is radical, a word coined by the fathers of Western civilisation, the Greeks. 'Radex' means 'root.' To be radical means to go not half way, but to the very root of something. That he chose to wear them means that Bishop Griver accepted completely their inner logic and meaning, the meaning of the Cross. Abandoned by almost all He hoped he could count on, Christ accepted carrying His Cross to its terrible conclusion for love of every person ever born. So, also, Bishop Griver, one of the early builders and fathers of the Catholic Church in Western Australia, chose to follow in his master's steps. Christ's victory on the Cross defeated death once and for all. Griver's imitation of his Lord was a daily exercise in defeating his own weaknesses and sinfulness. But their wearing was a daily exercise not in morbidity, fear or negativity but of the victory and supremacy of love. As Christ's victory opened the door to eternal life for all who accept him, so Griver's crosses, one suspects, one hopes, one prays, did the same for him.
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