St Edmund’s Catholic Church
Modern day St Edmund’s
Southampton Times and Hampshire Express, May 17th 1884
“An important addition has just been made to the church accommodation of the Roman Catholic Community in Southampton by the erection of a temporary iron church within the grounds of the Convent situated in The Avenue for the purpose of meeting the requirements of the large number of Catholic residents…
The new church which has been built (at a cost of £500) upon ground presented by the Convent nuns has been dedicated to St Edmund of Canterbury whose name it bears, and seems to be thoroughly suitable for the purpose for which it has been designed. The building is of a light and airy character, and is capable of accommodating about 300 persons.
The design of the altar has been very successfully carried out by Mr Charles Vaughan
The Bishop said in his Address that although the material nature of the structure in which they were assembled was nothing extraordinary - even much that was humble and unpretentious - yet when they considered the purpose to which it was that day dedicated, he felt that it acquired a solemn importance.”
Father Rivara soon cleared the £500 debt. Within five years he had sufficient money to commence the erection of a permanent church on land once again given by the Convent.
On the morning of Wednesday 20th November 1889, the new church was opened for public worship by Bishop Butt of Southwark.
Article originally written to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the death of Fr Emmanuel Rivara, Founder of St Edmund’s Church and School 17 March 2015
Fr Emmanuel Rivara, born in 1856 in Brighton to Italian street-musicians and ice cream sellers, was the first priest ordained for the Portsmouth diocese in May1883. He trained as a teacher before studying for the priesthood in Lisbon, St Edmund’s Ware and St Thomas’s seminary Hammersmith. He was sent after his first appointment at St James’ Reading, to the new ‘St Edmund’s Mission’ Southampton, the first of the Missions in the newly-created diocese of Portsmouth.
He built at a cost of £500 in 1884 an ‘Iron Church’ behind the Lodge roughly where the gym of the LSU college stood. The present St Edmund’s church was completed in 1889 only 5 years after his arrival. The illustration from The Builder Magazine shows the 50 metre high tower that was never built through lack of funds..In the Lady Chapel there remains a dedication to Fr Rivara’s parents Nicholas and Maria. The stained glass window he put up to their memory was blown out in WW2.The carving of Fr Rivara’s head which was placed to the left of the entrance doors to the church is also lost. Attempts to erect a headstone over his unmarked grave in the Old Cemetery have failed and so we hope to put up a framed photo of him in the Lady Chapel. This is the only known photo of him taken in 1930 at St Joseph’s Centenary Mass in Southampton .He will then be commemorated in the church he loved.
He built St Edmund’s presbytery in 1895 ,and the parish school in Middle St at a cost of £1,1000, the predecessor of Springhill School. Before the school was opened Fr Rivara ran a Catholic school in the present Lodge-it must have been very cramped and he was the only teacher!
Fr Rivara was forced to leave Southampton in 1899 because of severe depression and exhaustion and, after short appointments in Jersey, Guernsey, Liphook and Christchurch, he retired to Fordingbridge in 1915, dying in the Blighmont Nursing Home, Waterhouse Lane Southampton on March 17th 1935 of asthma and bronchitis. He is buried in the Old Cemetery on Southampton Common in an unmarked grave.
A Foundation Mass for Fr Emmanuel has been arranged each year for March 17th.
Please pray for the soul of this gentle priest who gave us through his hard work and devotion the wonderful church we now enjoy.
Carole Olding
Previous Clergy
Parish Priests
Rev E Rivara 1884-1899
Canon D O’Mahony 1900-1949
Canon J Hetherington 1949-1966
Canon G Dwyer 1966-1990
Canon Nicholas France 1990-1999
Canon John O’Shea 1999-2010
Monsignor Canon Vincent Harvey 2010-2023
Canon Michael Dennehy 2023-
Previous Assistant Priests
Rev J Hally 1897-1899
Rev J Nagle 1910-1913
Rev T Byrne 1909-1922
Canon B Lindsay 1916-1931
Canon W O’Sullivan 1922-1936
Canon D O’Hanlon 1931-1943
Canon D Rea 1936-1939
Rev M Minogue 1942-1948
Rev M Wallace 1946-1949
Rev J D Dwyer 1946-1953
Canon D Ryan 1949-1952
Rev M J Eady 1952-1958
Canon B Scantlebury 1953-1958
Rev J B Balfe 1958-1965
Rev R A Noel 1959-1965
Rev A J Carroll 1965-1966
Rev J Boocock 1965-1967
Rev J Vickers 1966-1967
Rev D MacMillan 1967-1976
Rev F Isherwood 1967-1970
Rev P Spellman 1970
Parish Deacons
Rev M Laker 1974
Rev E Walsh 1977
Missing Records
Rev A Philpott
…
Rev D Quarmby 1970-1972
Rev D Forrester 1972-1977
Rev P Lopeman 1973-1975
Rev F Muscat 1976-1979
Rev T Hanley 1977-1978
Rev I Ker 1978-1982
Rev L Charnley 1980-1981
Rev P Hart 1981
Rev D Watson 1981
Rev M Cronin 1982-
Rev D Stritch 1982-1983
Rev F Ellerton 1983-
Missing Records
Rev Johnpromise Umeozuru 2021-2023
Rev David Bateman 2023-