Melzer, Augustin, 1864-1911, Jesuit brother

Born: 03 February 1864, Bohemia, Czech Republic
Entered: 10 May 1886, St Andrä, Lavanttal, Kärnten, Austria - Austriaco-Hungaricae Province (ASR-HUN)
Final Vows: 02 February 1898
Died: 20 June 1911, Xavier College SJ, Barkers Road, Kew, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Transcribed ASR-HUN to HIB : 01 January 1901

1886-1888: St Andrä, Lavanttal, Kärnten, Austria (ASR-HUN), Novitiate
1888-1889: Sacred Heart, Daly River Mission, Northern Territory, Australia, working
1889-1890: St Joseph’s, Rapid Creek, Palmerston, Northern Territory, Australia, Cook
1890-1892: Sacred Heart, Daly River Mission, Northern Territory, Australia, Cook and working
1892-1901: St Joseph’s, Rapid Creek, Palmerston, Northern Territory, Australia, Cook and working
1901-1902: Port Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, Cook (HIB from 1901)
1902-1903: St Mary’s, Miller Street, Sydney NSW, Australia, working
1903-1905: St Ignatius Church, Queen Street, Norwood, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, working
1905-1906: Loyola, Greenwich Road, Greenwich, Sydney NSW, Australia, Cook
1906-1908: St Aloysius College SJ, Milson’s Point, Sydney NSW, Australia, working
1908-1911: Xavier College SJ, Barkers Road, Kew, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, working
1910-1911: Caring for health

◆ Menologies

He was one of the Austrian Brothers who remained in Australia after the amalgamation of the Austrian and Irish Missions.

He was stationed at Kew College and he died there 20/06/1911.

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280

Augustin Melter entered the Societ 10 May 1886, and left Europe for Australia in 1888. He worked on the Northern Territory Mission as cook, carpenter and refectorian, first at Rapid Creek, 1889-90, then at the Daly River, 1890-99, and finally at Palmerston or Port Darwin, 1900-01. After the amalgamation of the two missions, he transferred to the Irish Mission.
He continued his domestic duties in the parishes of North Sydney and Norwood, as well as at Loyola College, Greenwich, St Aloysius' College, Milsons Point, and finally, Xavier College, Melbourne, 1908-11.

Melzer was a carpenter by trade, and a very clever artisan. He could turn his hand to the management and repair of all kinds of machinery He also had an excellent command of English, and for a time taught in the school among the Aborigines.

Not long at Xavier College, he was struck down with illness in 1909. He was unable to do much after that, but bore his sickness with cheerfulness.

◆ The Xaverian, Xavier College, Melbourne, Australia, 1911

Obituary

Brother Augustine Melzer SJ

Brother Augustine Melzer was born in Bohemia on February 3rd, 1864.He enteres the Society of Jesus as a lay brother on May 10th, 1886, and two years later was sent out to the mission among the blacks of the Northern Territory.. He was a carpenter by trade, but a very clever general artisan, and could turn his hand to the management and repair of all kinds of machinery.

He also llad excellent command of English, and for a time taught in the school among the blacks. He laboured in the Northern Territory till the close of the Mission in 1907. Then lie spent some time. in Sydney, and finally came to the College in 1909. He had not been long at the College when, during the Christmas vacation, 1909, he was stricken down He rallied occasionally, and was able to go about the grounds, but grew weaker on the whole till, early in June of this year,hie was seen to be near his end. He bore his long illness with exemplary cheerfulness, and died peacefully on June 20th. On the Feast of St Aloysius he was laid to rest with the other ment bers of the Society in the Kew Cemetery. May he rest in peace.

◆ http://missionaries.griffith.edu.au/missionary-training/jesuits-northern-territory-1882-1902

German Missionaries in Australia

The mission diary was kept in Latin, but Fr. Fleury's letters show something of the struggle with the English language. Recently arrived from Europe, he was left in Darwin to uphold the Catholic ministry after the mission closed in 1899. Forced to deliver sermons in English he tried to commit them to memory but had to resort to reading them 'off the paper'. He resigned that neither the Christians nor the pagans 'care the least for instruction' and paid 'no heed' to his sermons.33 Within two years of his arrival from Europe, this multilingual Swiss priest had lost his German without gaining proficiency in English:

I have lost the use of speacking German. I tried to speak German with Br. Melzer but every second word I spoke was English, yet I am far from speaking it well. I should rather say that I can not speak more any language fluently.

Uncertain future

Perhaps the scandal was not the only reason for the two official visitations in 1896 and 1897. Fr. Timothy Kenny, superior of the Irish mission of the Jesuit Society in Australia, undertook an official visitation (20 May to 8 June 1896) because, as Dalton observes, the Irish and Austrian Jesuits in Australia were considering a merger (which did not take place until 1901).55 Kenny found that there were only 15 children at school, the school building was inadequate and Fr. O’Brien was still only acting in locum tenens in Darwin. In effect the mission was struggling and the diocese was deserted.

Fr. Kenny retracted Fr. McKillop from the mission and his report to Rome instigated a visit (26 May to 19 June 1897) from Fr. Joseph Milz (1841-1915), the former Provincial of the Austrian Society of Jesus, now placed in charge of the Australian Austrian mission. Fr. Milz directed Fr. Conrath and Br. Kramar to Darwin to live with Fr. O’Brien. This left only Fr. Marschner with five Brothers on the mission (Scharmer, Pfalzer, Melzer, Longa, Haelbig) and represented a complete change of guard of the priests, since Fr. Marschner had only returned north in March 1895. Clearly the Jesuit administration was now more interested in cementing the diocese than in the precarious mission venture. The Jesuit staff in the north peaked at 13 (1889 to 1891) and gradually declined again.

The priests, too, were sapped of their enthusiasm. Fr. Kristen had left in 1895 with nervous exhaustion, Fr. McKillop had left in 1896 and Fr. O'Brien was stationed in Darwin as administrator since 1898. Neither Fr. Conrath nor Fr. Marschner were enthusiastic about the prospects of the mission. It would take several generations of Christianising before any lasting results could be achieved, and twenty years of intensive work had not produced commensurate results. The seasonal floods imperiled their economic efforts and risked their lives, and the influence of the elders pulled the children back into tribal society.56 Fr. Milz received 'increasingly desparate letters' while the future of the mission was being considered.57

Four more staff arrived in Adelaide from Europe in December 1898 and all were sent north. Fr. Augustus Fleury (age 44) and the carpenter Br. Joseph Girschik (age 32) reached Darwin on 2 January 1899, but the linguist Fr. John Pfeifer (age 39) and the cook Br. Rupert Haertl (age 41) arrived too late to reach the mission.

The diocese had been devolved to Geraldton Bishop William Bernard Kelly DD (14 February 1898), but for the time being three Jesuits were left in Darwin to administer the diocese (Fr. O’Brien, Fr. Fleury, Br. Melzer). Most of the properties acquired by Fr. Strele were also sold. Fr. O’Brien represented the Bishop while Kelly was still overseas, and stayed on for some time after the Bishop’s return to Geraldton. Some of the couples stayed on at Uniya and Fr. Fleury visited them and the Catholics settled along the railway line occasionally. Fr. O’Brien was farewelled by a delegation of Darwin citicens in April 1902 and the three finally left Darwin in September 1902 while Fr. Ryan from the Geraldton diocese spent two months in Darwin around October 1902. Thereafter Darwin’s still small Catholic community was serviced only by visiting priests travelling through, until Fr. Gsell MSC arrived as the new apostolic administrator in August 1906. Gsell occupied the former Jesuit residence commissioned by Fr. Strele in 1889 and referred to the Jesuit departure from the north as a 'strategic retreat'.58 He invested his energies in the Tiwi mission on Bathurst Island that had already been suggested by the Jesuits as a more promising mission field.

Br. Augustine Melzer SJ (1864-1911)
In the northern mission from 1889 to 1902. Born in Bohemia, 3 February 1854, joined the Society in May 1886 as a carpenter, went to Australia in 1888 and arrived in the northern mission on 2 November 1889. He worked as cook, carpenter and in the refectory, at first at Rapid Creek and then helped to set up Serpentine Lagoon, then at New Uniya 1891-1899 and evacuated to Darwin in July 1899 where he remained as cook and housekeeper for Fr. O'Brien and Fr. Fleury until 1902. He joined the Irish mission and was assigned to Norwood, then the Loyola novitiate at Greenwich (Sydney), and finally Xavier college, where he fell ill in 1909 and died at age 47. He was said to have an excellent command of English and was known as a skilled carpenter and machinist.