th the example of the "priesthood hunted down like wolves" before
him, Father Flynn saw but one consistent course to pursue. His fellow
Catholics, his fellow Irishmen, were in sore need of his help; that
help they must receive, even though the civil powers refused their
sanction. So for several months he went about as secretly as he
could, hearing confessions, offering the Holy Sacrifice, and breaking
the bread of good counsel. During this trying period, Davis was his
host and defender and friend. Eventually the presence of the priest
was detected; he was arrested and promptly sent back to England.
Before the ship sailed he tried repeatedly to return to the house of
Davis where the Blessed Sacrament was preserved in a cedar
clothes-press, but the surveillance of his captors was strict and
unsleeping. So in the dwelling of the convict Irishman the Sacred
Species remained. Before this unwonted repository Davis kept a light
ever burning day and night; and day and night crept the loyal
Irishmen of the settlement to kneel in prayer before the improvised
shrine. The "Holy House of Australia", as the Davis dwelling came to
be known, remained the only Catholic church in the colony until 1821,
when two Irish priests, Father John Joseph Therry of Cork and Father
Philip Connolly of Kildare, were permitted to attend to the spiritual
needs of the Irish Catholics. Their coming marked the beginning of
religious toleration in Australia and the termination of the
sufferings and sacrifices of the Irish colonists, several of whom had
had to pay dearly for their religious convictions. Davis himself had
been twice flogged and once imprisoned for refusing to attend
Protestant service.

Today, on the site of the "Holy House of Australia", stands the
church of St. Patrick. Davis gave the land and the sum of one
thousand pounds to the church, and his fellow exiles contributed
according to their means. This episode in the history of the Irish in
Australia pays a touchingly eloquent tribute to the spirit of loyalty
to God and country which has characterized the sons and daughters of
St. Patrick everywhere whither their feet have strayed. It is the
spirit which has embodied itself in the imposing cathedral of St.
Patrick in Melbourne and the splendidly equipped college of St.
Patrick in Sydney. It is the spirit which has made the Irish play so
conspicuous a role in the civic and commercial history of
Australasia.

Originally known as New Hollan