Camino de Santiago
The Camino de Santiago (The Way of St James) is an ancient Pilgrims route that runs from several points in Spain and France to Santiago in Western Spain. Over the course of centuries, small communities have sprung up along the route to provide the Pilgrims with shelter and food, this makes it an amazing experience. In 1993 it was declared a World Heritage Site and now attracts tens of thousands of walkers each year.
The link between Subiaco and New Norcia
St Josephs Church, Salvado Road, Subiaco: has a very Italian address for a Parish Church that has been more Irish than Italian since its foundation in 1934, as most of the Parish Priests have come from Ireland. That tradition continues to this day with the current PP, Fr Joseph Walsh, a Mayo man from the West of Ireland, who has over-seen a magnificent renovation of this iconic Church.
So how did the “Irish” St Josephs get such an Italian address, when in fact it had roots from Santiago in Spain?
In 1850 Bishop Serra, a Spanish Benedictine from the monastery town of New Norcia, came down to Perth to establish a community in the area of Perth which he named New Subiaco. But New Subiaco was not destined to be their permanent home and in 1864 the last of the Benedictine monks left to re-join their brothers in New Norcia.
In 1881 the Perth to Fremantle railway was completed and the name Subiaco was adopted for a railway station near the old monastery building. Subsequently it was used for the name of the thriving community that sprang up around the station.
Salvado Road, where St Joseph’s Church is located, is named after Bishop Serra’s famous confrere, Dom Salvado, who accompanied him from Italy to the West Australian Mission of New Norcia in 1850: and it was Dom Salvado (later Bishop and Abbot Nullius), who was the towering figure behind the first 50 years of his beloved New Norcia, and who often walked into Perth to help raise funds for their work amongst the indigenous people of Victoria Plains.
Both Bishop Salvado and Bishop Serra were Spanish: they studied for the priesthood at San Martin Pinario in the Cathedral city of Santiago de Compostella in Galicia. However, in 1835, due to the anti-clerical stance of the government of the time, all men’s monasteries were closed and their property confiscated. Dom Serra left for Cava near Salerno in Italy and was followed a few years later by the younger Dom Salvado. They both felt the call of the Missions, and on applying for permission to Rome, they were assigned to Bishop Brady here in Perth in 1844.
