Charles Gordon O’Neill, was the principal co-founder of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia and New Zealand is buried at Rookwood Catholic Cemetery.
O'Neill was a Scottish civil engineer, inventor, parliamentarian and philanthropist who is remembered for his life’s commitment to the poor and promoted a more sympathetic and non-judgmental approach to charity. O’Neill was born in the Scottish town of Inverary on 23 March 1828, the fourth of eleven children, his parents were Irish Catholics. As a result of direct experience witnessing the plight of the Irish Famine victims, Charles O’Neill and his older brother John James committed themselves as lifelong helpers to the destitute through service to the St Vincent de Paul Society joining in 1851.
The Society was named after a French priest St Vincent de Paul who transformed Christian charity in France during the 17th century. In his own mission for the poor, Charles O’Neill was devoted to this saint as well as to St Francis of Assisi, the famous friar and preacher to the poor in 13th century Italy.
In 1864, O’Neill commenced his new life surveying the rugged colonial frontier of the New Zealand goldfields. He voiced his concerns for the welfare of the mining workers, Catholic education, town planning, health, forest conservation, and tramways and railways development. He was also one of the first in parliament to warn of the dangers to global climate posed by forest destruction.
O’Neill devoted himself to his mission to establish the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia. He established the first St Vincent de Paul conference in 1881 at St Patrick’s Church Hill in Sydney. He marshalled additional society conferences at St Francis’s Broadway, St Mary’s Cathedral and St Benedict’s Broadway. In addition to mainstream assistance such as with food, clothing, travel and medicines, he also provided money for rent for Sydney’s homeless.
In 1891, he guided over 20 conferences making 11,000 visits to the poor in their homes and provided £12,000 in assistance to the poor. He became Lay Head of the Third Order of St Francis, a religious movement associated with the Franciscan Friary at Waverley. Now that the Australian colonies were in deep depression, the foresight demonstrated in his undertaking this mission was evident.
One extraordinary project in 1883 was a plan O’Neill developed with fellow engineer F.B. Gipps for railway tunnels crossing underneath Sydney Harbour; such schemes remained under consideration by the New South Wales government until Federation.
Sadly, O’Neill died destitute at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney on 8 November 1900, aged 72 and was buried in a section of Rookwood Cemetery two days later. In 1961, his remains were removed to the society's burial plot for the destitute at Rookwood Catholic Cemetery in the company of those he served so well.
On the 18th of November 2015, Catholic Cemeteries in conjunction with the St Vincent de Paul Society will open a walkway and reflection area in honour of Charles O'Neill which chronicles his extraordinary mission and life in Scotland, New Zealand and Australia with a collection of flora from each country. As the aphorism of St Vincent states ‘those who love the poor in life shall have no fear of death’.
Read lessCharles Gordon O’Neill, was the principal co-founder of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia and New Zealand is buried at Rookwood Catholic Cemetery.
O'Neill was a Scottish civil engineer, inventor, parliamentarian and philanthropist who is remembered for his life’s commitment to the poor and promoted a more sympathetic and non-judgmental approach to charity. O’Neill was born in the Scottish town of Inverary on 23 March 1828, the fourth of eleven children, his parents were Irish Catholics. As a result of direct experience witnessing the plight of the Irish Famine victims, Charles O’Neill and his older brother John James committed themselves as lifelong helpers to the destitute through service to the St Vincent de Paul Society joining in 1851.
The Society was named after a French priest St Vincent de Paul who transformed Christian charity in France during the 17th century. In his own mission for the poor, Charles O’Neill was devoted to this saint as well as to St Francis of Assisi, the famous friar and preacher to the poor in 13th century Italy.
In 1864, O’Neill commenced his new life surveying the rugged colonial frontier of the New Zealand goldfields. He voiced his concerns for the welfare of the mining workers, Catholic education, town planning, health, forest conservation, and tramways and railways development. He was also one of the first in parliament to warn of the dangers to global climate posed by forest destruct... More
