Dean Matthew Horan is recognised in St Patrick's Parish in Gympie as 'the builder'. As Fr. Matthew Horan he came to Gympie as parish priest in 1867, only five months after gold was discovered. He continued as parish priest for 55 years. Fr. Horan, originally from Ireland, was a nephew of Bishop Quinn who was Bishop of Queensland from 1859 to 1881. Fr. Horan celebrated Mass in a tent until it was replaced by a bark hut, then by a wooden church until this in turn was replaced by a stone church in 1887 where Mass is celebrated today. In the years that he tended his flock with a zealous, undying faith, he had a particular concern for the education of Catholic children. Long before the Mercy Sisters and the Christian Brothers came to the goldfields, he had set up a School near his church where lay teachers laboured in the cause of Catholicism. Dean Horan brought the Sisters of Mercy to Gympie in 1879 and the Christian Brothers in 1904. Having purchased the first piece of land for the Catholic Church for 18 pounds, Dean Horan expanded the area on all sides until five acres comprised the block on Calton Hill, where the church and Schools were built and still stand today. Matthew Horan, priest and builder, loved by a wide circle of friends and parishioners who had grown up around him, died on 6th July 1923.
The Cross: The solid uniform cross of Horan House represent the firm foundation of the Catholic community in Gympie that Dean Matthew Horan nurtured in its earliest years. The masonry wall symbolises the actual building of St Patrick's Church and the Schools of the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers. The two Schools amalgamated in 1983 to become St Patrick's College and St Patrick's Primary School.
