Search Blackfriars

Established: 1986

Named for: Fr Marie-Joseph Lagrange OP (1855-1938)

Colours: Green / Gold

Flag: Composed of quarters of gold and green and eighths of black and white. The gold and green are derived from the crest of Le Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem founded by Fr Marie-Joseph Lagrange. The black and white recalls the Dominican tradition.

Patron: St Antoninus of Florence (Feast Day: 10 May)

2023 House Captain: Nathaniel Forby / Deputy: Joon Kwon

2023 Head of House: Mr Owen Stanborough

2023 Home Group Teachers: Mr Joseph Burford, Mr Matthew Freeman, Mr Andrew Castiglio

House Awards

Fr John Neill Athletics Cup (est.1987)

  • Winner: 1988, 1989, 2003
  • Runner-up: 1987, 1994, 2001, 2018

Annual Swimming Carnival (est. 1987)

  • Winner: 1994, 1996
  • Runner-up: 1995

St Albert’s Shield for Academic Excellence (est. 1993)

  • Winner: 2006, 2008
  • Runner-up: 2009

House Spirit Shield (est. 2004)

  • Winner: 2008
  • Runner-up: –

House Captains

  • 1987 –
  • 1988 – Richard Kain, Ian Harvey (Deputy)
  • 1989 – Richard Kain
  • 1990 – Patrick Kelly
  • 1991 – Ben Smedley
  • 1992 – Shane Dowling
  • 1993 – Michael Booth
  • 1994 – Vince Lamontagna
  • 1995 – Jamie Ellul
  • 1996 – Tom Forde
  • 1997 – Rick Catterwell, Greg Buski (Deputy)
  • 1998 – Ben Wilcox, Lee Robertson (Deputy)
  • 1999 – Nathan Fullgrabe
  • 2000 – Chad Catterwell
  • 2001 – Timothy Boettcher, Stuart Wickham (Deputy)
  • 2002 – Kyle Kargans
  • 2003 – Liam Harnett, Tylar Foubister (Deputy)
  • 2004 – Andrew Shepherd
  • 2005 – Aiden Karaivanoff, Dean Katsaparas (Deputy)
  • 2006 – Thomas McMahon, Matthew Harnett (Deputy)
  • 2007 – Giorgio Giordano
  • 2008 – Jameel Jezierski, Luke Basic (Deputy)
  • 2009 – Daniel Dolatowski, Scott Lambert (Deputy)
  • 2010 – Steven Tran, Stanley Lim (Deputy)
  • 2011 – David Hoang
  • 2012 – Patrick Meaney
  • 2013 – Thomas Greenwell
  • 2014 – Harry Sytnyk
  • 2015 – Lachlan Bolzon
  • 2016 – Marcus Caporaso
  • 2017 – Anyoun Kuol
  • 2018 – Brydon Luu, Declan Fitch-Woolford
  • 2019 – Jonathan Neate, Tristan Oakes (Deputy)
  • 2020 – Tristan Oakes, Daniel Ismail (Deputy)
  • 2021 – Antony Le, William Wright (Deputy)
  • 2022 – Duy Nguyen, Benjamin Herbert (Deputy)
  • 2023 – Nathaniel Forby, Joon Kwon (Deputy)

Heads of House

  • 1987 to 1989 – Mr Royce Davey
  • 1990 to 1995 – Ms Cathie Oswald
  • 1996 to 1998 – Mrs Annalisa Tsoukatos
  • 1999 to 2005 – Mrs Lesley Roughan
  • 2006 – Mr Mark Reid
  • 2007 to 2014 – Mr Owen Stanborough
  • 2015 to 2017 – Mrs Annalisa Cecere
  • 2018 to present – Mr Owen Stanborough

Individual Awards

Magnus Medal & Nicholas Altman Prize – School Dux

  • 1989 – Anthony Bezzina
  • 1993 – Simon Dabrowski (Science / Mathematics)
  • 1996 – Tom Forde
  • 2000 – Thuong Pham
  • 2003 – Liam Harnett
  • 2004 – Andrew Shepherd
  • 2005 – Scott Beinke
  • 2009 – Jake Cole
  • 2010 – Steven Tran
  • 2011 – David Hoang
  • 2022 – Nico Cacayorin

Jordan of Saxony School Spirit Award

  • 1990 – Patrick Kelly
  • 1996 – Luke Page
  • 2007 – Quoc Pham
  • 2010 – Steven Tran
  • 2019 – Declan Fitch-Woolford
  • 2020 – Ali Mohammadi

St Martin de Porres Service to the Community Award

  • 2006 – Matthew Harnett

Frassati Sportsman Award

  • 1993 – Nicholas Altman
  • 1998 – Joshua Christison
  • 2006 – Robert Parish
  • 2008 – Ross Hrisafinas

Prefects

  • 1987 – Mark Hopps
  • 1988 – Richard Kain
  • 1990 – Patrick Kelly
  • 1991 – Rocco Lagana, Tim Wright
  • 1992 – Simon Dabrowski, Dharmesh Raman*
  • 1993 – Andrew Booth, Michael Booth^, Scott Curtis, Simon Dabrowski, Matthew Holmes, Roy Luzzi, Dharmesh Raman
  • 1996 – Tom Forde*, Luke Page, Darren Prior, Timothy Smedley
  • 1997 – Sean McGrath
  • 1998 – Robert Andreacchio
  • 1999 – Nathan Fullgrabe
  • 2000 – Chad Catterwell, Lachlan Cameron, Stan Kafantaris
  • 2001 – Timothy Boettcher, Lucien Dabrowski
  • 2002 – Kyle Kargans
  • 2003 – Liam Harnett, Luca Prosciandaro, Daniel Quinlivan
  • 2004 – Andrew Shepherd*
  • 2005 – Scott Beinke
  • 2006 – Matthew Harnett
  • 2007 – Michael Hodby, Quoc Pham
  • 2008 – Alexander Beinke
  • 2009 – Jake Cole, Daniel Dolatowski*
  • 2010 – Steven Ong Tran
  • 2014 – Hong An ‘Martyn’ Nguyen
  • 2017 – Connor Watson, Minh Anh Tran
  • 2018 – Carlos Garcia, Alexander Muscat
  • 2019 – Declan Fitch-Woolford*
  • 2020 – Ali Mohmmadi
  • 2021 – Daanyaal Shakoordeen (YCS)
  • 2022 – Hy Bao Buu
  • 2023 – Benjamin Herbert, Nathan Sewart

* denotes Head Prefect
^ denotes Deputy Head Prefect


Fr Marie-Joseph Lagrange OP

Fr Marie-Joseph Lagrange remained strong, despite opposition, in reviving biblical study in the Catholic Church.

Albert Marie-Henri Lagrange was born on 7 March, 1855, became a Dominican in 1879 and was ordained in 1883. After teaching church history at Toulouse, he studied oriental languages at the University of Vienna before his Dominican superiors sent him to Jerusalem in 1890 to establish the School of Biblical Studies (Le Ecole Biblique). There he also founded a journal, the Revue Biblique (Biblical Review), and in 1903 began a series of scholarly commentaries on the Bible, the Études bibliques (Biblical Studies), to which he contributed three volumes: one on the historical method of Old Testament criticism, one on the Book of Judges and another on Semitic religions.

Lagrange was a great teacher of sacred scripture and was slowly beginning to make a name for himself in academia. In his research he invented and applied a method of reading scripture which was seen as suspect by many high ranking authorities in the Church. In fact some of his books were banned and he was silenced by the Pope of the time.

Remaining faithful to the Church was hard for Fr Lagrange, yet being a believer in the truth – veritas – which is God, Lagrange was adamant that his way of looking at the Bible was helpful in coming to the veracity of the sacred texts. Eventually Fr Lagrange’s approach to scripture was upheld in 1943 by Pope Pius XII’s encylical letter Divino Afflante Spiritu.

Lagrange’s legacy lives on today in that his method of examining scripture is the standard way of looking at biblical texts. Furthermore his foundation Le Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem still continues to do historical and archaeological research in biblical disciplines to this day.

Fr Marie-Joseph Lagrange died on 10 March, 1938.