Bishop Grimes Himself

The University of Canterbury holds a number of book collections within the libraries on campus. One particular collection, the Bishop Grimes Collection has 4,600 books in its catalogue. The University Chronicle claimed that 195 of these were classed as a rare book at the time of the donation, and today could include a great number more. This collection was donated to the University in 1980 by Reverend Bishop P. Ashby, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch. The collection covers a wide and diverse range of subjects, as collected by the Bishops of Christchurch, ranging from Catholic theology and Church History to books on Natural History, Travel and Literature.

Before I start discussing certain items in the Bishop Grimes Collection, it’s important to understand why it is so diverse. In order to begin to understand this, we must look at the life and influences of its main collector – Bishop Grimes.

John Joseph Grimes was born 11 February 1842 in London, England. His education was influenced by the Marist Brothers in England and France. His studies towards priesthood took him to Ireland and by 1869 he was ordained a Priest. He taught in Ireland before his teaching position took him overseas to the United States of America in 1874 where he eventually became the college president of St Mary’s Jefferson College. He returned to Ireland soon after, sick with yellow fever.

Grimes then moved to a position in England as a priest in Paignton, Devon. It was in this district, which had been strongly Protestant since the revolution in the fifteenth century, that he baptised the first Catholic child in the district 300 years after the Reformation. This key role was only a precursor to his future position.

On 13 May 1887 he was offered the new Catholic See of Christchurch, New Zealand. He was ordained a Bishop on 26 July and remained the Bishop of Christchurch for almost 28 years until he died on 11 March, 1915 in Sydney, Australia.

During his time as the Bishop of Christchurch, he oversaw a number of social and religious projects. He provided pastoral care to the Catholic Maori population and was key in improving relations between the Anglican and Catholic Church. In 1888 he opened the Magdalen Asylum (a women’s home), in 1911 he opened Nazareth House (an orphanage and home for the elderly), and finally in 1914, the Lewisham hospital (later renamed Calvary). Most importantly, he instigated the building of the Catholic cathedral, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, one of the finest cathedrals in Australasia, which began its building 1901 and was completed in 1905.

A scholar himself, Grimes involved himself in the development of Catholic schools. In 1911, he opened a Marist College which still operates to this day. The college was named after Saint Bede who had been involved in teaching and education during his life. St Bede’s College is only one example of the nine schools Grimes helped construct during his time.

With the events of his life in mind, it becomes a lot easier to understand why the Grimes Collection is so diverse. The pastoral care he gave to the Catholic Maoris explains why his collection of Maori and Pacific Island texts is so large. Other rarer texts that cannot be found in New Zealand could be attributed to the travels that Grimes undertook during his bishopric. He travelled to Rome, Italy, North America, France, England, Ireland and other European countries and had the opportunity to collect books during these periods. 

An example of a text that was published in Europe that has found its way into the Grimes collection is a 1562 copy of Henry VIII's Defence of the Seven Sacraments, which bears the book stamp of the Grimes Collection. It is possible that this text was bought in Europe and brought over to New Zealand in an earlier century or during Grimes' travels, but at this point it is impossible to determine. Discovering how texts like this came to be in the collection is part of my investigation and internship.

Note: Although the Grimes collection is named after the first Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, the collection was not solely collected by the Bishop. The successors to the Bishopric, up until 1980, also continued adding texts to the collection.

References

Catholic Church. 'Bishop Grimes' from Catholic Diocese of Christchurch. Updated 2015.
http://www.chch.catholic.org.nz/?sid=2096

Michael O'Meeghan. 'Grimes, John Joseph', from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 2-Oct-2013. 
http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/2g21/grimes-john-joseph

St Bede’s College Website – 'History'.
http://www.stbedes.school.nz/welcome/history/. 

University of Canterbury. ‘Henry VIII & the Reformation’. From 'University of Canterbury – Library'.
http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/kjb/bible_in_english/Reformation.shtml

University of Canterbury, Chronicle Vol 15. No. 22 (22 November 1980). Article.

Image of Bishop Grimes

http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/image/?imageId=images-8124&profile=access