World-renowned astronomer’s grave found in Spring Valley’s tiny cemetery
Reverand Fr Gregor Hagemann grave in Spring Valley cemetery
Who would have guessed that a world-renowned astronomer lies within one of the tiny cemeteries managed by the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn?
Not only was he an astronomer, but he was also one of our Catholic priests!
The Reverand Fr Gregor Hagemann was born in Germany when Kaiser Wilhelm II was on the throne and later ordained a priest in Rome in 1935, not long after the Nazis came to power in his home country.
Yet during the 1930s/40s, he also studied mathematics and science in Vienna and Berlin, obtaining a doctorate in astronomy in the latter.
By 1940, he was in China, combining his spiritual and astronomical callings as the Professor of Astronomy and Meteorology at Fu Jen Catholic University in Peiping (now Beijing).
Fr Gregor Hagemann, c.1948 (Photograph taken from migration case file held by National Archive of Australia, cited as: NAA: A1870, Hagemann G, 1948–54)
He emigrated to Australia in 1948 and a small 1951 article in the Canberra Times records he had escaped from China as the communists swept to power.
He came to the national capital following his dual pursuits, ministering in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn and working at the Mt Stromlo Observatory.
He was well known as an astronomer and the observatory’s Dr Brad Tucker told the Catholic Voice that Fr Hagemann was noted for publishing several scientific papers on the properties of stars and how these properties are used to measure the nature and history of the Milky Way Galaxy.
According to Dr Tucker, Fr Hagemann worked at the observatory until he retired for health reasons in 1958.
After later parish appointments and a stint as chaplain at St Edmund’s College in Canberra, he moved in 1970 to the “Hermitage” at Spring Valley southwest of Goulburn to minister in retirement to the Spring Valley community and the nearby town of Tarago. He died at Goulburn in 1981.
Today, he lies at rest beneath the stars in Spring Valley’s little cemetery in the grassy plains east of Lake George, one of about twenty similar cemeteries managed by the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.
We pass by many of these tiny places without giving them a second thought.
Yet how many of them contain stories like those of Fr Hagemann, stories of the pioneers and the pious, of the families and the individuals, of the triumphs and tragedies of the faithful in our near and distant past?
How many of them could hold lessons for us, like those of the astronomer priest, who looked to the Spirit and the stars to ponder what lies within and what might lie above?
Great story. Thanks
Great article
My wife and I and my brother visited St Lawrence’s Church in Spring Valley in March 2013 and were shown around by the caretaker. We saw some items which had Fr Hagemann’s name on them. One such item was a penny catechism. We also visited his grave. Two of our relatives, the Sykes, are also buried there. They Sykes had been originally buried at Ryansvale. But, because the Mulwaree River regularly flooded the cemetery attached to St Michaels Church, which was on the banks of the river, there bodies were exhumed and reburied at St Lawrence’s. An ancestor of ours, James Byrne was also buried at Ryansvale and we visited his grave. His headstone was still standing and was very readable.
The Collector Cemetery served the Sykyes & others before the Cemetery commenced at Spring Valley https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/101455393
Further to my comment above my two Sykes ancestors were Sarah and William Sykes. Inside the Church, apart from the penny catechism, were books belonging to Fr Hagemann. According to my wife they were books of an intellectual and academic nature, including St Thomas Aquinas’ “Theological Summa”. I wonder if they are still there? If so, surely they should be moved elsewhere for safe keeping?
The three portions at Spring Valley have an interesting history, land was ‘appropriated’ by the Church 1872 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/223088717 as occurred in multiple locations, a spin off of the Church Act by Governor Bourke.
while the cemetery represents the Crown issuance of the standard 1ac.
THe Spring Valley Church began with the appropriation of lands by the Catholic Church, a spin off from the Church Act under Governor Bourke that promoted moral development found in religion.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/223088717
THe Spring Valley Church began with the appropriation of lands by the Catholic Church, a spin off from the Church Act under Governor Bourke that promoted moral development found in religion.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/223088717 before which Collector was the centre of services https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/101455393