Maguire, Rev Francis

REV. FRANCIS MAGUIRE

January 30, 1976

Personal Info

  • Date of Birth: 5 April 1886
  • Place of Birth in Ireland: Dromard, Fihora
  • County: Longford
  • Education: St Kieran College, Kilkenny; St Patrick College, Thurles; St Francis College, Brooklyn, NY and St Bonaventure Seminary, St Bonaventure, NY
  • Date of Ordination: 6 June 1914
  • Place of Ordination: St Joseph Cathedral, Buffalo, NY

Diocesan Appointments

  • Assistant – St Joseph, Wichita – 7/5/1914 to 9/30/1914
  • Assistant – St Martin, Piqua – 10/1/1914 to 11/30/1914
  • Assistant – St Patrick, Fulton – 12/1/1914 to 1/31/1915
  • St Patrick, Parsons – 1915 to 1916
  • 1st Resident Pastor – St Joseph, South Mound – 1916 to 11/24/1917
  • Pastor – St Anthony, Wellington – 11/25/1917 to 4/13/1953; missions in St Mary, Oxford – 1917 to 11/3/1939; Perth – 1919 to 7/15/1929 and Red Bud – 1919 to 1/1/1936
  • Pastor – Holy Redeemer, Tampa – 4/13/1953 to 1966
  • Chaplain – Via Christi St Francis Hospital – 1966 to 1976

Father Francis Maguire “celebrated” his silver jubilee anniversary as a priest in Room 214 of the Wichita Hospital following an operation for ulcers. Prior to his operation, he spent several weeks being fed liquid foods through a tube in his stomach.

In 1941, Fr Maguire appointed a committee to assist him in building a church and school building for St Anthony’s Parish in Wellington. Father had been the pastor at St Anthony’s for 24 years but he was determined that his parishioners support the efforts to add buildings to the parish when the mission was to educate their children. The school building he was building was expecting an enrollment of up to 55 students.  To show Father’s commitment to the children and the high value he placed on Catholic education, he was one of the first priests to establish the summer vacation school in the parish. In addition, he was able to recruit two Sisters of St Joseph to commute every Saturday afternoon to teach catechism to the parish children.

Father Maguire was treated to a special celebration as the parish came together to honor him for his 25 years of service to St Anthony’s and to the successful opening of Wellington’s first Catholic school.

After nine months in a Wichita hospital, Father Maguire sister, his longtime housekeeper, passed away. Father Maguire was celebrant of the Solemn Requiem Mass. Father Thomas Green delivered the funeral sermon and praised Miss Marie Maguire for her life of sacrifice to the parishes served by her brother and that her life of sacrifice and suffering would have merited her a very special place in Heaven.

In 1949, Father Maguire announced that the plans for a new English Gothic church for St Anthony’s parish had been completed. The new church will be 100 feet long and 54 feet wide in order to provide seating for 325 people. Approximate cost of the new Church was expected to be $100,000.

  • Date of Death: 30 January 1976
  • Place of Death: St Francis Hospital, Wichita, KS
  • Age of Death: 89
  • Cause of Death:
  • Funeral Celebrant: Bishop Maloney
  • Burial: Holy Redeemer Cemetery, Tampa, KS

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