Conrath, Fr. Joseph SJ (1853-1932)

Birth / Death:

born 17 March 1853, in Bitburg (Rhineland, Germany)

died 29 January 1932 at Mariaschein (Austria, now Bohosudov, Czech Republic), age 78

Jesuit missionary and linguist in the Northern Territory from 1884 to 1899.

Joseph Conrath joined the Society of Jesus in October 1873.¹ He arrived in Australia in December 1883 and at Rapid Creek [1]in February 1884 together with Br. Vincent Scharmer.

During his first two years at Rapid Creek he devoted much of his time to language study, so that by May 1886 they were able to print the first Larrakia language books and hymns, which had been set to familiar tunes.² Fr. Conrath also studied Malak-Malak at Old Uniya on the Daly River [2], and was impressed with the grammatical sophistication of the language. He translated religious texts including the Ave Maria and Pater Noster and worked together with Fr. Kristen on the language. In the 1890s he began to instruct the Jesuit Brothers at New Uniya in English.³

Fr. Conrath became superior of the Holy Rosary Mission (Old Uniya) and referred to the northern missions as 'Reductions' in his diary entries. He was considered a great organiser and solicited much activity in the mission schools, but several years into the experiment he was ‘not enthusiastic’ about the prospects of the mission. He felt that the cultural translation of Ten Commandments, for example, was wrought with difficulty and misunderstanding, with Aboriginal women maintaining that to kill one’s infant was not within the sway of the 5^th Commandment.⁴ His diary entries suggest that Fr. Conrath held very strong convictions about the intercession of Saints, the practical efficacy of baptism, and the prompt manifestation of the wrath of God. With equal force he denied the validity of 'native superstitions'. He broke up ceremonial gatherings and particularly despised a contact cult called tyaboi (which had disappeared by the 1930s).⁵ He intervened in marriage arrangements and devised the mechanism of purchasing the marriage rights of women for which Fr. Gsell at Bathurst Island later became famous.

When Fr. John O’Brien became apostolic administrator and had to move to Darwin (1898), Conrath became Vice-Superior of St. Joseph’s mission (New Uniya). He was at Uniya during the great flood of 1899 and then represented Fr. O’Brien in Darwin while the latter inspected the damage at the mission. When the mission was given up Fr. Conrath embarked for Europe.⁶ He spent several years with the Aragon Jesuit province serving at Manila's Ateneo Municpal, and returned from the Philippines to Austria in 1914.⁷

1 David Strong SJ The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-1998, Archives of the Society of Jesus, 1999:61.

2 Strele 1885 in Anton Strele SJ, Annual Letters from the Jesuit Mission in North Australia 1886-1889, translated by F. Dennett SJ, Archives of the Society of Jesus, Hawthorn.

3 'Diary of the Station of St. Joseph of the Mission of the Society of Jesus on the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of Australia' translated by Paddy Dalton SJ, revised and typed by F. J. Dennett SJ August 1982, in Archives of the Society of Jesus, Hawthorn, passim.

4 Paddy J. Dalton SJ ‘History of the Jesuits in South Australia 1848-1948’ Unpublished MS, 1948:42, 56; ‘The Daly River Mission’, Northern Territory Times and Gazette 14 July 1899: 2. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4236272 [3]

5 D. Mackillop 'Anthropological notes on the Aboriginal tribes of the Daly River', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 17, 1892-93:254-64, p. 262.

6 Paddy J. Dalton SJ ‘History of the Jesuits in South Australia 1848-1948’ Unpublished MS, 1948:42, 56; ‘The Daly River Mission’, Northern Territory Times and Gazette 14 July 1899: 2. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4236272 [3]

7 David Strong SJ The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-1998, Archives of the Society of Jesus, 1999:61.