page_title: Sacred Heart Cathedral, Wellington
section_title: Mary, mother of Jesus
hierarchical_section_title: Sacred Heart Cathedral, Wellington / Features / Mary, mother of Jesus
caption_attribution_description: Wellington Catholic Cathedral
context_page_description: The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and of Saint Mary His Mother, better known as Sacred Heart Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral on Hill Street, Wellington, New Zealand. It is the parish church of the Thorndon Catholic parish and the Cathedral of the Archbishop of Wellington. The New Zealand Parliament is a close neighbour of the Cathedral. However, the Thorndon Catholic parish predates that institution. The Cathedral is part of a Catholic precinct which includes St Mary's College; Sacred Heart Cathedral School; St Mary's Convent, the motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy in Wellington; the Catholic Centre, in which Catholic administration is located; and Viard House, which is both the Cathedral parish presbytery and the residence of the Archbishop.
  The church was popularly known as "the Basilica", because of its palladian architectural style. It was designated as the Cathedral of Wellington in 1984 after earthquake strengthening and the addition of the Blessed Sacrament chapel, foyer, sacristy, courtyard, hall and piazza.
context_section_description: In the cloister courtyard beside the foyer entrance of the Cathedral stands the two-metre, cast-iron statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, made in France ("with heavy Gilt" ) that was lodged, in honour of the Immaculate Conception on 8 September 1867, high up on the east side of the tower of the original cathedral, St Mary's Cathedral, where it faced the harbour and its gilding reflected "the first rays of the rising sun." The statue was placed in the tower in memory of the consecration of the diocese in 1855 to the Immaculate Conception, which Bishop Viard had carried out, after he had proclaimed the newly pronounced dogma, as a specific remedy against any recurrence of the series of severe earthquakes felt in the province of Wellington over several months in that year. 
   
  The statue fell some 80 feet during the 1898 fire, crashing down from the tower. However it was later salvaged with minor damage. Some eyewitnesses attested that when the Cathedral tower fell, the statue hung momentarily in mid air before descending slowly and gracefully and in an upright position to the ground where it landed completely undamaged. In 1984 the statue of Mary, now painted white except for the crown and girdle, was placed in the cloister courtyard to remain "the sign and warrant of her protection of the city."
caption: South aisle and window; to the right, a station of the cross with a "Mater Dolorosa" sculpture below it
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