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Joseph Higgins, the second Bishop of Rockhampton, was born in the Parish of Myvore, County of West Meath, Ireland in 1838. He attended school at St Finian’s College at Navan, matriculating in January 1858. He studied for the priesthood at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he won prizes in Theology and Church History.
Joseph Higgins was ordained in May 1863. He worked as an assistant in the Parish of Tullamore for four years and returned to St Finian’s College as a professor, where he remained for seventeen years, then spent short terms as parish priest of Castlehover and Delvin in Ireland.
He was appointed titular Bishop of Antifelle by Pope Leo XIII and was consecrated in Navan Church by the Archbishop of Dublin on 31 March 1889. A few months later, Bishop Higgins arrived in Sydney and was stationed at St Benedict’s for ten years, working with Cardinal Patrick Moran. He took a keen interest in Manly Seminary and education generally.
When Bishop Cani died, Bishop Higgins was appointed to the Diocese of Rockhampton, and took office on 4th May 1899. Bishop Higgins came to the diocese with many advantages. He was an Irishman. He was already a bishop of experience, having been appointed ten years earlier as an auxiliary to the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran.
Unfortunately, Central Queensland climate did not agree with him, and so for health reasons he was appointed as the first Bishop of Ballarat on 3rd March 1905. He died on 16th September 1915 aged seventy-seven and is buried in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat. |
