Ref: Footprints: Journal of the Melbourne Diocesan Historical Commission, Vol. 13, No. 2, Dec. 1996, pp. 21-25.
References to this article were found online, and copies of the publication were located at the State Library of Victoria where the article was copied.

BROKEN OUTLINES

by Ruth Trait
No. 2 in a Series

Dean Timothy Francis O’Sullivan  1873—1962

On 11 October 1962, the Second Vatican Council opened in Rome and that same evening, to mark the historic event, the bells of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne pealed joyfully for fifty minutes. Close by, in St Vincent’s Hospital, Dean Timothy Francis O’Sullivan may have heard this heralding of a new era in Church History. His own priestly contribution was about to end; he died the next day, Friday 12 October 1962. A few days later, on Tuesday 16 October, the Cathedral bells tolled for him.

Timothy Francis O’Sullivan was born in Preston (which means ‘priests’ town’) Victoria, on 11 December 1873; he was one of the large family born to Eugene O’Sullivan and his wife, Mary Doran.

Eugene was from Greenagh, County Cork; Mary had emigrated from County Kilkenny with her parents. Eugene emigrated first to the United States of America, but in 1858 came to Australia. He joined the Port Curtis Goldrush in Queensland, then came down to Melbourne, where in 1860 he married Mary in St Francis’ Church, Melbourne. The same year Eugene took up land in Preston in the district known as Gowerville.

The family farm was near the intersection of Plenty Road and Gower Street, and when Eugene O’Sullivan died in 1925, he was still living in Preston, at 418 Plenty Road.

In 1865 Preston was a bustling village of 1,200 people; it had a steam flour mill, a pottery, a post office, police station and a cab-stand ‘whence cabs run to and from Melbourne and other places if hired to do so’. It was an agricultural area with market gardens and orchards. There was no near-by Catholic Church in the early years of the O’Sullivan family; they would have attended St John’s Heidelberg, whose Foundation Stone was laid in 1860, or St Francis‘ Church in Lonsdale Street Melboume – 7 miles away or, from 1882, perhaps St John the Baptist’s, Clifton Hill. (The first Mass in St John the Baptist’s was celebrated that year.) Sacred Heart Church Preston was not built until 1889, when Timothy was 16 years old.

The O’Sullivan children walked over to Heidelberg to school every day, but eventually Timothy went to the Jesuits at St Patrick’s College East Melbourne. It must have been early in 1893 that he went up to Sydney to enter St Patrick’s Seminary at Manly. One of his brothers, Jeremiah, became a Jesuit priest and one of his sisters a Josephite nun, Sister M. Anysia.

On 19 March 1900, Archbishop Carr ordained to the priesthood Timothy Francis O’Sullivan; he was twenty-six years old, and was to labour as a priest for nearly sixty-three years. He never again travelled outside Victoria, and scarcely ever left his parish, yet he became one of the best known priests in Australia.

His first appointment as an assistant priest was to St Kilda West (1900), then followed Gordon (1901), Bacchus Marsh (1902), Kyneton (1905), South Melbourne (1907), Geelong (1908) and Collingwood (1910).

Fr O’Sullivan was able to follow his Saviour in a special way, denied to most of us; he was a carpenter and wood-carver. In 1903 the new church at Mount Blackwood featured an altar of carved pine, ‘the handiwork of Fr O’Sullivan’. In 1910 ‘he had taken the chief part in the construction of the altar of the new church at Healesville’. When he was appointed Parish Priest at Wonthaggi in 1911, ‘he lived for eighteen months in a 9ft by 6ft hut he had built himself’ . He cleared and levelled the land for building the Wonthaggi Church and Presbytery. He had been appointed to Wonthaggi for the express purpose of attending to the building of a church there, but he also saw to the building of schools, a convent and a presbytery.

‘Strong’ is the word that springs to mind to describe Fr O’Sullivan; physically strong, spiritually strong, and with a strong personality.

At a surprise party in 1914, the parishioners of Wonthaggi presented Fr O’Sullivan with ‘an order to purchase a motor-cycle’. He was then forty-one years old and it suggests he began burning around his parish, sending out sparks of the Gospel fire, long before the ‘God-Squad’ existed. The parish representative said of Fr O’Sullivan: ‘He made a great impression on all who met him … He taught by the best of all means – by force of a fine example. He had in such a way taught the dignity of manual labour. He had closely associated himself with the life of his people … all felt Fr O’Sullivan had one object in view – the salvation of the souls of the people committed to his care’.

In 1917 he was appointed Parish Priest of St Patrick’s Mentone. His extraordinary popularity is revealed by the celebrations in the Mentone parish, arranged for the eighteenth anniversary of his ordination; he had been in the parish about fourteen months. The festivities on 19 March 1918 commenced with 7 a.m. Mass, then on to Kilbreda Convent where the nuns and boarders entertained him and gave him ‘valuable presents’, then on to the Primary School for more presentations and gifts, then at 1.00 p.m. dinner was served at the Presbytery, each course on the menu being named after the different parishes where Fr O’Sullivan had worked; then followed a concert, then Benediction at 7.30 p.m. and at 8.00 p.m. another concert.

By mid-night the entire parish must have been exhausted, perhaps even Fr O’Sullivan.

He was full of initiative, and on two acres of land which he purchased himself and gave to Mentone parish, he continued – like the previous owner – to use it as a lavender farm, working in it himself at dawn, but getting help from local boys at harvest time, when the lavender would be bundled up and taken to the market for sale. The lavender income went into parish funds. On one occasion his foot was badly injured in a work accident – this prevented him from attending the 1919 St Patrick’s Mentone Parish Ball!

In 1925 be celebrated the silver jubilee of his ordination and the same year his father Eugene O’Sullivan died, aged 91. His mother Mary had died in 1912.

There is an inconsistency regarding the surname of the O’Sullivan family. It is possible that on their earliest Australian records it appeared as ‘Sullivan’, yet Fr Timothy always used ‘O’Sullivan’. His parents are recorded as ‘Sullivan’ in Coburg Cemetery records and on their grave, yet Fr Timothy, in the same grave, is referred to in records and on the grave as ‘O’Sullivan’.

In 1928 he was appointed Parish Priest of St Michael’s North Melbourne where he remained for eight years. The Parish representative described him at his Farewell as ‘an ornament to the Archdiocese and the Church, he was a pastor and a Christian gentleman of the highest type’. Fr O’Sullivan said his time at North Melbourne had been ‘years of happiness’.

In 1936 he was appointed for a second time to Sacred Heart St Kilda West but this time as Parish Priest. He was surprised when late in 1937 Archbishop Mannix asked him to go to Kyneton as Dean and Parish Priest (following the death of Monsignor Martin) and to be a member of the Diocesan Council. Thirty years before, he had been the curate at St Mary’s of the Holy Rosary and had loved Kyneton. In replying to the address of welcome Dean O’Sullivan said that while in Kyneton (before) he had taken as much interest as possible in public affairs, and his motto was to spend himself and be spent for the good of the part where his lot had been cast.

He remained at Kyneton for the rest of his life, and when he celebrated the golden jubilee of his ordination, the parish, surprisingly, gave him a Sports Oval – intended for the use of the school and the parish.

He had a magnetic personality and until the very end of his life enjoyed good health. He was over six feet tall and always dressed well. He was approachable, understanding and kindly, with a sense of humour. He had a great reputation as a confessor and people would travel considerable distances for his advice. He was generous and hospitable; a day in his presbytery was said to be a very pleasant experience.

When Dean O’Sullivan died in 1962, Monsignor Moran’s panegyric included this tribute: ‘Dean O’Sullivan had shown forth the best and most attractive qualities of a priest for more than sixty years.’

Either he, or his family, chose for him to be buried in Coburg Cemetery with his parents, instead of being buried at Kyneton or in the crypt of the Catholic Chapel in the grounds of Melboume General Cemetery. The grave has been neglected and vandalised. The indistinct tablet leaning on his resting-place reads:

‘Very Reverend
Timothy Francis
O’ Sullivan
Parish Priest
& Dean of Kyneton
Ordained 19th March 1900
Died 12th October 1962
Aged 88 years’

‘He raises up the strength of His Anointed’
1 Samuel 2:10

Dean O’Sullivan’s grave in Coburg Cemetery is in Roman Catholic Section A, Grave 648. If you wish to visit it we can send you a photocopy of a recent photograph of the grave, together with a description of it and rough directions to help you locate it.

The Melbourne Diocesan Historical Commission will gladly accept diaries, letters, writings, photographs and memorabilia of Dean Timothy Francis O’Sullivan. We would like to know of any inscriptions or memorials in his honour; we would particularly like to know the whereabouts of the Mount Blackwood and Healesville altars, and to receive photographs of them.
Ruth Trait