James Moore (bishop)

James Moore. Photograph by Thomas Foster Chuck (c. 1888–89).

James Moore (29 June 1834 – 26 June 1904) was a Bishop of Ballarat, Victoria (Australia).

Early life

Moore was born in Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. After a preliminary training at the Collegiate School in Tralee and a six-years' course at All Hallows Missionary College, Dublin, he was ordained to the priesthood, and left immediately for Australia.

Career in Australia

Moore arrived in Melbourne in January 1859. He was soon appointed to the important pastorate of St. Francis' Church, Lonsdale Street, in that city, but, owing to failing health, took charge of the less onerous parish of Keilor. There he remained until 1865, when Archdeacon Laurence Sheil having been appointed Bishop of Adelaide, Dr. Moore succeeded him as head of the Ballarat Mission in Victoria, being appointed dean, and accompanying Archbishop James Alipius Goold to Rome in 1873, when Pope Pius IX made him Doctor of Divinity. On the erection of Ballarat into a separate diocese he was appointed Vicar-General, and on the death of Bishop O'Connor, in 1883, the Pope, who had made him one of his domestic prelates and a monsignor in 1881, first named him administrator of the diocese, and then nominated him to the succession. He was consecrated on 27 April 1884.

Marian College in Ararat was founded in 1889 by five Brigidine Sisters from Ireland. They arrived in November 1888 and St Mary's Primary School opened in 1889 with a school roll of 60. The sisters had been requested by Moore.