The Administrators

Fr Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan OFM
Fr Geoghegan was born in either 1804 or 1805 and was baptised soon after. During his early life, Fr Geoghegan mainly lived in orphanages until a Franciscan Father rescued him. He studied in the Irish Franciscan College at Lisbon and was ordained in 1829. His first assignment was at St Francis' Church, Dublin, popularly known as the Church of Adam and Eve.

In 1839, he volunteered to venture off to Australian and arrived in Port Jackson on 31 December 1838 and for a few months was in charge of the St Benedict's parish. On 15 May 1839, he reached the Port Phillip district. With the exception of six months spent in Sydney in 1846, he laboured without respite at St Francis' Church, Melbourne until November 1848 when he was moved to Geelong. He then became the Bishop of Adelaide in 1859.

Whilst bound for Rome, he developed a throat condition, and although he was transferred to Golburn in 1864, he never made it and died on 9 May 1864 in Kingston, a suburb of Dublin and is buried in the Church of Adam and Eve.

Fr. Michael Stephens OSA
Fr Stephens was appointed administrator of St Francis' during the time Fr Geoghegan was away ill, in Sydney, from April to September 1842. After Fr Geoghegan's return, Fr Stephens was appointed to Geelong.

Fr. John Joseph Therry
Fr Therry was born in Cork, Ireland in 1790 and was ordained a priest in 1815. He arrived in Sydney on 3 May 1820 and purchased the site on which the present St Mary's Cathedral stands. He dies in Sydney in 1864.

Fr John Fitzpatrick
Born in Dublin in 1810, he began his studies in Carlow and completed them in Maynooth, where he was ordained in 1836. When the newly-consecrated Bishop of Melbourne, Dr Goold, was about to set off over land to Melbourne, he was to have been accompanied by Fr Fitzpatrick, but due to an injury he had sustained to his knee, he travelled by sea on the Shamrock and arrived in Melbourne on 6 November 1848.

Soon after his arrival, he was appointed administrator of St Francis', a position he held until March 1858 with the exception August 1849 - September 1850 which he spent at Geelong. He was later appointed Dean and Vicar-General and worked on the erection of St Patrick's Cathedral. Fr Fitzpatrick died on 21 January 1890 at St Patrick's.

Fr. Robert Downing OSA
Fr Downing was administrator of St Francis' during the period that Fr Fitzpatrick was in Geelong.

Fr John Barry D.D.
Fr Barry arrived in Melbourne in late 1856 and was appointed to St Francis' to assist Fr Fitzpatrick. In March 1857, he was made administrator. In July 1859, he became the President of St Patrick's College, East Melbourne. Fr Barry returned to Ireland and died in 1871 at the age of 55.

Fr James Moore
Fr Moore studied in All Hallows' College and was ordained in 1859. He came to Australia as chaplain to a group of immigrants and was appointed administrator of St Francis' from July 1859 - May 1862. He was then appointed to Keilor and in September 1866 to Ballarat, where he succeeded Dr Shiel as priest-in-charge. In 1869 he was appointed Dean, and later became Vicar-General to Dr O'Connor, the first Bishop of Ballarat. Following the death of the Bishop, he was appointed administrator of the diocese from 1884 and died in 1904.

Fr Simon Riordan
Fr Riordan was ordained at All Hallows in August 1847 and arrived in Melbourne in 1861. He was soon after appointed to Geelong and from January 1862 to September 1866 was stationed at St Francis'. He then moved to Keilor and remained there until the end of 1868 when he moved to Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) until June 1869.

Fr George Vincent Barry
Fr Barry arrived in Melbourne in 1864 and was appointed administrator of St Francis from October 1866 to January 1872 prior to his return to Ireland.

Fr Peter Paul O'Meara
Fr O'Mera was a native of Cork and studied at All Hallows' College, Dublin. In 1862 he was ordained for the Dioceses of Hobart and remained in Tasmania until his trip to Victoria, which he found the climate to be little more warmer than Tasmania. He stayed in Melbourne and founded the first parish sodality of the Children of Mary in Melbourne. In January 1872, he was appointed administrator of St Francis' which he held until his death on 27 December 1887. He is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Fr John L Heffernan
Fr Heffernan was born in Ballylongford, County Kerry in 1855. After his study at All Hallows' College he was ordained in 1878 and late in that same year arrived in Melbourne. He was appointed to assist at St Patrick's Cathedral and was in charge of the Clifton Hill district, which at that time was part of the Cathedral parish. Fr Heffernan was then appointed to the new Warragul Mission and then the new Diocese of Sale in 1887. In January 1888, he was appointed the new administrator of St Francis' until April 1891 when he moved to South Melbourne. Fr Heffernan died three months later on 6 July 1891.

Fr Patrick B Walshe
Fr Walshe, from Kilkenny studied at All Hallows' College and was ordained in 1874, the same year he arrived in Melbourne. His first appointment was to assist the Dean at St Mary's, West Melbourne. He was then appointed to South Melbourne, Kilmore, Kyneton and then Williamstown. In April 1891, he was transferred to St Francis' and worked there until his death on 3 April 1894 at the age of forty-five.

Fr Thomas Lynch
Fr Lynch was administrator of St Francis' from April 1894 to October 1895. In the 1940s he was pastor of St. Mary's, East St Kilda.

Fr William Quilter
Born in Listowel, County Kerry, Fr Quilter studied at All Hallows' College and was ordained in 1877. Soon after his ordination, he arrived in Melbourne and was stationed at Elsternwick, prior to moving to Dandenong, South Melbourne and Kew. In October 1895 he came to St Francis' and stayed there until his death on 20 April 1926, at the age of seventy-six.

Fr William M Collins
Fr Collins, was appointed administrator of St Francis in September 1926 and remained in charge until the end of 1928. In the 1940s he continued to minister at the parish in Kew.

Fr Edward Leo Fennessy
Fr Fennessy was born on 12 October 1903 and was educated by the Christian Brothers in Victoria Parade, East Melbourne followed by St Kevin's College. He then studied at the University of Melbourne for a year prior to going to St Columba's Cikkege, Springwood followed by St Patrick's College, Manly NSW. Fr Fennessy was ordained on 28 November 1926 and spent a short time in Preston prior to his arrival at St Francis' in December 1928.

Fr Fennessy was the last administrator of St Francis' prior to the arrival of the Blessed Sacrament Congregation. He remained at St Francis until October 1929. He then worked at the Cathedral and several parishes including Essendon and Gardenvale. He died on 22 January 1979.