History in Colour: Archbishop Denis Hurley

by Admin · Published February 13, 2023 · Updated February 10, 2023

Archbishop Denis Hurley OMI, carrying a large cross, leads an ecumenical group of people past Durban’s Central Post Office during the 1988 Good Friday Procession of the Diakonia Council of Churches, with Anglican Bishop Michael Nuttall at back in the photo.

When he received his episcopal orders to head what was then the vicariate of Natal in an ordination Mass on March 19, 1947, he was the world’s youngest bishop, at only 31 years of age. When he became the archbishop of the newly-constituted archdiocese of Durban in 1951, he was at 35 the world’s youngest prelate to hold that title.

Archbishop Hurley headed the archdiocese of Durban for an impressive 46 years until his retirement in 1992. After that he served Durban’s cathedral parish for many years. He died on February 13, 2004, at the age of 88.

A detail of this photo illustrated the cover of the late Paddy Kearney’s magisterial 2009 biography of Archbishop Hurley, titled Guardian of the Light.

Published in the March 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine