Francis Redwood

Francis William Mary Redwood SM (6 April 1839 – 3 January 1935), was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wellington, Metropolitan of New Zealand. Redwood was born on 8 April 1839 on the Tixall estate, Staffordshire, England. His parents were Henry Redwood and his wife Mary (née Gilbert). In 1842 he sailed to New Zealand with his parents, siblings (including his brother Henry and his brother in law Joseph Ward) on the George Fyfe. His father had bought land from the New Zealand Company, and the family settled in Waimea West in the Nelson district. The locality became known as Appleby and his parents had Stafford Place built in 1866. The house is registered as a Category I heritage building by Heritage New Zealand, with registration number 1678.

Redwood was educated at the Nelson school of Fr Antoine Garin, SM. In December 1854 he went to study at St Mary's College at St Chamond, near Lyon, France, and in 1860 he entered the scholasticate of the Society of Mary (Marists) at Montbel, near Toulon. He entered the Marist novitiate at Sainte-Foy. He was ordained priest at Maynooth in 1865 and gained his baccalaureate in theology at Dublin.

After three years' teaching at Catholic University School, Redwood suffered a near fatal bout of pneumonia in 1867 and went to Lyon to convalesce. There he met Philippe Viard, Bishop of Wellington, who was going to Rome to discuss his diocese and later to attend the First Vatican Council. Viard was impressed and even perhaps thought of Redwood as his coadjutor. However, before any appointment could be made, Viard died. There was a long delay before Redwood was appointed his successor in January 1874. Redwood was consecrated by Cardinal Manning at St. Anne's, Spitalfields, London, on 17 March 1874. Redwood spent his time appealing for funds in France and personnel in Ireland before returning to New Zealand in November 1874. When consecrated second Bishop of Wellington, Redwood was the youngest Roman Catholic bishop in the world. At his death, aged 95 he was said to be the oldest. The overwhelming size of the Wellington diocese led to the decision to create a new diocese comprising Canterbury and Westland. At the same time a metropolitan archdiocese was created. Redwood favoured the appointment of his fellow Marist John Grimes, who was English-born, as Bishop of Christchurch, but in 1885 the first plenary council of Australasian bishops recommended that the appointment go to a diocesan priest and that Dunedin be the new archdiocese. This would have strengthened the largely Irish diocesan clergy at the expense of the Marists, who successfully petitioned Rome to overturn both recommendations. In 1887, Grimes became bishop of Christchurch and Redwood archbishop of Wellington and metropolitan of New Zealand. Redwood was created archbishop by a papal brief dated 13 May 1887. Even though his see was large and roads were bad, Redwood attached great importance to personal visitation. He established numerous churches, hospitals, and orphanages, was a founder of St. Patrick's College, Wellington in 1885, and lived to open the new St. Patrick's College, Silverstream, in 1931 in the Hutt Valley. Redwood expanded and completed St Mary's Cathedral and, when it was destroyed, replaced it with a basilican church which eventually became Sacred Heart Cathedral.

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