Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Illness of Military Chaplain

News has reached the Bishop that Captain the Rev. E. O'S Goidanich was taken ill with sceptic pneumonia shortly after he began work on shire. It was probably contracted from horses which died of the complaint on the voyage. For a few days his temperature hovered between 104 deg and 105 deg. F. an inoculation with pneumono-vaccine worked wonders, and he was convalescent at the time the report was made, and is now most probably immersed in most urgent work.

Advocate Saturday 21 August 1915 page 18

Rev. E. O'S. Goidanich Wounded.

The following cable was received by his Grace the Archbishop of Mel-bourne: —Heliopolis, Cairo. Achbishop Carr, Melbourne. Father P. Murphy (S.A.) and self wounded. Both doing well. GOIDANICH.

Our Ballarat correspondent writes: Captain the Rev. E. O'S. Goidanich, who has been pastor of Charlton for several years, was one of the first Victorian priests to be accepted as chaplain to the Australian troops on active service. As recorded in the'Tribune,' he was recently transferred from the hospitals in Egypt to the trenches at Gallipoli. On Saturday a cablegram was received announcing that Father Goidanich had been wounded, and was in hospital at Heliopolis, where he was doing well.

Tribune Thursday 25 November 1915 page 5

Death of Right Reverend Mgr. Goidanich

Two Archbishops and five Bishops were present al the Solemn Obsequies of Right Rev. Monsignor Edward O'Sullivan Goidanich, R.L, V.F. f parish priest of Ararat and one of the best-known priests in the Melbourne Province, who died on August 18, in his eighty-second year. Chaplain with the Australian Expeditionary Forces in the 1914-18 war, he was awarded the Military Cross, a unique distinction for a chaplain, for his service at Gallipoli. Solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul was celebrated at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Ararat, on Friday last.

THE late Mgr. Goidanich was born at Queenstown (Cobh),Ireland, and was educated at St. Finbar's College, Cork, and at St. Colman's College, Fermoy, which he attended at the same time as his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne, Most Rev. D.Mannix. Later, he studied atthe College des Irlandais, Paris, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1890. His father, of Slavic descent, was born in the Tendino district of Austria—the "Italia Irrendenta,"the recovery of which was one of the reasons for Italy's entry into the First World War. During his youthful years he travelled extensively in Italy, Switzerland, France and Belgium, and his knowledge of languages and of continental customs and modes of life were of great advantage to him later in the years of the war. In 1893, when he had been in the Ballarat diocese a short time,he was appointed first parish priest of the newly-formed mission of Swan Hill, where he remained seven years. During September, 1900, he was transferred to the parish of Charlton, which was then a large mission. In 1905, he built a new church at Wycheproof, which was opened by the late Bishop Higgins of Ballarat on June 28. Three days later, the Bishop made an appeal to the people of Charlton to build a new church there. The project was warmly received and Fr. Goidanich (as he then was) had the satisfaction of seeing the first stone laid by the Bishop in February of the following year. The new brick church, built to the design of Keogh and Austen, was blessed by Bishop Higgins on September 15 of the same year. It had cost £2454. In 1909, a fine Carrara marble altar was added to the church by Fr. Goidanich in memory of his mother, who died at Charlton in 1907. Another church belonging to the period was a large weatherboard structure, 75 feet long at Wooroonook, which was blessed by Bishop Higginson May 18, 1913, at a cost of £600. It was opened free of debt and stood close to the old chapel said to have been erected in the seventies. The pastor volunteered and was appointed a chaplain of the Australian Expeditionary Forces on April 19, 1915,and went into training immediately. By August of the same year he was attending Australian wounded in the Middle East. At the hospital of Heliopolis over one thousand sick and wounded were under his immediate care. Soon after he was transferred to the Dardanelles, and it was in this field of operations that he was awarded the Military Cross, said to be a unique -decoration for a chaplain. Two years after enlistment,he returned to Australia and in January, 1918, was transferred from Charlton as pastor of Port Fairy. During his pastorate of the district, Fr.Goidanich cleared off the debt on the convent. This he accomplished by means of a queen competition in 1919, which realised over £550. Another fete in1923, in aid of the convent, brought in £388. During his pastorate he collected sufficient funds to build the beautiful church at Yambuk, but owing to his transfer to Ararat in 1930 he had not the privilege of supervising its erection. His period at Port Fairy was marked by untiring devotedness, especially during the serious pneumonic influenza which swept the whole State. During this period, he was one of the most heroic workers in the town for all classes of sufferers and of all creeds. In May, 1930, he was appointed successor to Dean O'Hare as Vicar-Forane of the Wimmera. During the existence of the valuable literary joiirnal, "Austral Light," Mgr. Goidanich acted as theological correspondent and contributed a number of informative and well-written articles on different subjects. He was also "responsible for a very fine historical memoir—in three parts—on Bishop Moore, second Bishop of Ballarat. This article has proven of inestimable value in the compilation of the story of this pioneer's life.
YOUTH In his young days, Mgr. Goidanich was an active, vigorous man, of a robust constitution and capable of enduring a great deal of fatigue. He took a keen interest in athletic sports and was an ardent cyclist and motorist. By disposition, tastes and accomplishments, he was well fitted for his arduous ministry in the diocese of Ballarat, and throughout his whole life he maintained a high dignity, yet was able to fraternise with all classes and win their respect and confidence. Two Archbishops and five Bishops were present at the solemn obsequies at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Ararat, on Friday, August 21. His Lordship the Bishop of Ballarat, Most Rev. J. P. O'Collins, celebrated the Pontifical Requiem Mass and in the sanctuary were his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne, Most Rev. D. Mannix; his Grace the Coadjutor-Archbishop of Melbourne, Most Rev. J. D.Simonds; Most Rev. J. McCarthy,Bishop of Sandhurst; Most Rev.B. Stewart, Coadjutor-Bishop ofSandhurst; Most Rev. B. Roper, Bishop of Toowoomba (Queensland), and Most Rev. G. Vesters, M.S.C. Bishop O'Collins preached the panegyric. Among the 60 priests present were Right Rev.Mgr. A. F. Fox, V.G., Adm.,Melbourne; Right Rev. Mgr. E. Galligan, R.I., V.G., Warrnambool, and Very Rev. M. Mulcahy,R.I., V.F., Terang.

Advocate Thursday 26 August 1948 page 8