Abbot Rudesindo Salvado OSB |
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1st Roman Catholic Abbot | |
Statute of Rosendo Salvado, located in his hometown of Tui, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain
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Church | Territorial Abbey of New Norcia |
Diocese | Perth |
Installed | 12 March 1867 |
Term ended | 29 December 1900 |
Successor | Fulgentius Antonio Torres |
Other posts | Bishop of Port Essington (1849 – 1867) |
Orders | |
Ordination | 23 February 1839 (Priest) in Naples |
Consecration | 15 August 1849 (Bishop) |
Personal details | |
Born |
Tui, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain |
1 March 1814
Died | 29 December 1900 Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Rome |
(aged 86)
Buried | New Norcia |
Nationality | Spanish |
Denomination | Roman Catholic Church |
Occupation | Roman Catholic bishop |
Profession | Cleric |
Dom Rosendo Salvado Rotea OSB (1 March 1814 – 29 December 1900) was a Spanish Benedictine monk, missionary, bishop, author, founder and first Abbot of the Territorial Abbey of New Norcia, in Western Australia.
Salvado was born at Tui, Galicia, Spain and at the age of 15 entered the Benedictine Abbey of San Martin at Compostela. He was clothed in the habit in 1829 and took his final vows in 1832. In 1835, he was forced to flee to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, after the Anti-Catholic government of Isabella II of Spain decreed the closing of all monasteries and the secularization of monks as a result of the First Carlist War. He was received into the Abbey of Trinità della Cava, near Naples, where he was ordained to the priesthood in February 1839.
Strongly desiring to labor in the foreign missions, his wish was granted after John Brady was consecrated as first Bishop of the Diocese of Perth. With his longtime friend Father Joseph Serra OSB, Salvado sailed from London with the Bishop's party and landed in Fremantle in January 1846. At Brady's instruction, Salvado and Serra, alongside a small party of their fellow Benedictines, journeyed deep into the Victoria Plains via ox drawn cart. On 1 March 1846, they founded "The Central Mission" in the midst of the bush, intending to convert the Aborigines to Catholicism. This was later renamed "New Norcia," after the birthplace of St. Benedict.