Langlands’ & Villa Nova College Chapel

As part of the New MBH Program, the Langlands’ & Villa Nova College Chapel holds active intellectual significance as a prime example of “thinking religion in place,” where sacred meaning is anchored within a specific, historically contingent environment. Originally the domestic residence of merchant Reuben Nicklin and later the Connah family, the estate’s acquisition by Archbishop James Duhig in 1916 signifies a critical step in his broader strategy to acculturate Brisbane through the establishment of parochial precincts and overoptimistic urban development. The site’s transition from the Good Samaritan Convent of Saint Scholastica to Villanova College in 1954 under the Augustinian Order reflects the institutionalization of Catholic character formation and the local adoption of overseas intellectual capital. Realized “in rebus” (in the thing itself), the chapel serves as a physical architecture that has directly shaped religious and educational agendas, providing a diagnostic tool to resist “historical forgetfulness” by revealing how domestic origins are transformed into institutional sacred spaces.