John Bede Polding OSB (18 November 1794 – 16 March 1877) was an English Benedictine monk and the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Australia.

His parents died and at age 8 he was placed in the care of his uncle, Father Bede Brewer, president-general of the English Benedictine Congregation.

Polding was first taught by the Benedictine nuns of the Convent of Our Lady of Consolation of Cambray, who as refugees from revolutionary France were located at Much Woolton, near Liverpool.

In 1819 Polding's cousin, Bishop Edward Bede Slater, was appointed vicar apostolic with jurisdiction over Mauritius, Madagascar, the Cape, New Holland and Van Diemen's Land.

[5] In 1834 Polding was appointed Bishop of Hierocaesarea in partibus infidelium and Vicar Apostolic of New Holland, Van Diemen's Land and the adjoining islands.

The authorities soon realised the good effect his influence was having, and arranged that, on the arrival of every ship-load of convicts, all the Catholics should be placed at his disposal for some days, during which the bishop and his assistants saw each prisoner personally and did all they could for them before they were drafted off to their various destinations.

[4] Some sources report that as a result of a successful diplomatic mission to Malta, Archbishop Polding was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire.

Despite his many successes as a founding bishop, Polding experienced a degree of resistance from his largely Irish Catholic church in Australia.

[8] The British anti-clerical laws of the Reformation Parliament and the Act of Supremacy had bred deep resentment among the Irish against the English, and the consequences of the dissolution of monasteries during the English Reformation had left Polding deeply committed to the primary vision of restoring monasticism in English-speaking lands such as Australia.