Congratulations to Monsignor Frank Hickey

Congratulations to much-loved Monsignor Francis (Frank) Hickey (SPC 1942-43) who celebrated 70 years of priesthood recently.

Monsignor Hickey was ordained as a priest on July 22, 1951 and retired at the age of 75 from full time ministry.

The 95-year-old has reportedly lived in Nagambie for 20 years and has been a well-known figure at the town’s masses, baptisms, weddings, funerals, confirmations and other celebrations alongside parish priest Fr Tony Hill.

Francis, or Frank as he is known, was born in Shepparton and raised in a family of eight children. He attended SPC in the early 1940s and it was while he was at school that a talk by a visiting religious brother helped Frank realise his calling was to become a priest. He then joined several other SPC students to commence studies at Corpus Christi in 1944 and was ordained in Shepparton on July 22, 1951.

Since then, Frank became a much-loved priest who is described as a “man with a great sense of humour who always gave a hundred and ten per cent of himself to those he served”.

His life as a child and then as a priest is recorded in a fitting tribute, which you can read further here

A celebration mass and lunch was held on August 1 at Nagambie to mark Monsignor Frank’s platinum celebration.

We understand Mons Hickey will also be acknowledged further by his diocese at a forthcoming priests’ luncheon. To read more, click here