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Lawrence Bonaventure Sheil OSF (1815-1872), Catholic bishop, was educated in Ireland and Rome, where he taught for some time after his ordination in 1839. Having returned to Ireland, he was recruited for the Australian mission and he arrived in Melbourne on the same ship as Bishop Goold in early 1853. After serving on the Catholic education board of Victoria, he went to Ballarat as archdeacon in 1859. Seven years later, Goold consecrated him bishop of Adelaide. In South Australia he nominally presided over a period of great expansion in Catholic facilities and personnel; there were scores of Catholic schools in his diocese. However, for much of his time as bishop he was in Rome and Ireland, recruiting and attending to other business; and he was also in poor health. As a result, there was considerable confusion and disunity amongst South Australian Catholics during his bishopric.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
Accession number: 2010.51
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