St John the Baptist Shrine, Maitland

The foundation stone for St John the Baptist Church was laid in 1840 at Campbell’s Hill by Archbishop Polding. In 1844, Fr John “Dean” Lynch, along with both Catholic and Protestant parishioners, carried the stone from Campbell’s Hill to “where the people were” in central Maitland. The church opened for use in 1846. It served as the parish church until Bishop Murray, the first Bishop of the Diocese of Maitland, took possession of it for his Cathedral in 1866. It remained so until 1933 when it became too small to accommodate all the faithful. The Catholic Hall which had been blessed and a foundation stone laid by the Most Rev Dr Kelly Archbishop of Sydney in April 1922, was deemed a good replacement by Bishop Gleeson and in 1933 he decided to use it as his Pro Cathedral. St John’s Church was repurposed and became be a hall and classrooms for St John’s Boys Primary School. The Pro-Cathedral continued use as Cathedral until 1989 when it suffered severe damage from an earthquake and was closed. St John the Baptist Church was partly refurbished and reopened as a chapel. In 1994 the altar, windows and reredos were reinstated and a crypt created for the mortal remains of the Diocese’s decreased Bishops. On the Feast of St John the Baptist 24 June 1994, 150 years after the foundation stone was moved from Campbell’s Hill, the crypt was blessed. In 2015 extensive restoration work was completed in time for the Sesquicentenary of the Diocese in 2016. In 2024 St John the Baptist was officially classified as an Oratory.