April 28, 1963
Father Francis Hayden
Father Hayden was born at Greenbush, Kansas, on February 16, 1878 and was baptized by Father Paul Ponziglione, an early Jesuit missionary in Kansas. He attended grade school at Osage Mission (now St. Paul, KS) and seminary at the Redemptorist College in Kirkwood, MO and Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis, MO. Bishop Hennessy ordained Fr. Hayden, the third native born priest of the diocese, at the Pro-Cathedral in Wichita on May 7, 1910. As pastor he served in Oswego, Seward, Burns and Iola. With almost forty years of service to the diocese, Father Hayden retired in 1948 but twenty-two months later Bishop Carroll asked him to be chaplain at Villa Maria in Mulvane, a position he held until May 12, 1961. He died at St. Francis Hospital in Wichita on April 28, 1963 at eighty-five years of age and as the second oldest priest in the diocese. Father Hayden’s funeral Mass was celebrated by Bishop Byrne at the cathedral and his burial was in Calvary Cemetery in Wichita.