Death comes after 50th anniversary for Monsignor Shashy

The following Florida Times-Union article was published on February 19, 1986

By Barbara White, Staff Writer

When he suffered a heart attack last year, Monsignor Andrew Shashy asked God to let him live to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.

He celebrated that anniversary Sunday with a Mass and reception at Christ the King Catholic Church in Jacksonville. Afterward, Father Shashy had a heart attack.

He died yesterday in Baptist Medical Center. He was 79.

A niece, Rose Michael, said Father Shashy was with family members while they were cleaning up after the reception when he became ill. He had seemed to recover from the heart attack he had last March, Mrs. Michael said.

"He asked God to give him life to celebrate his 50th jubilee, and that's what he did," she said. "He wanted a party and his Mass. And it was absolutely beautiful, with Bishop [John J.] Snyder and 29 priests around the altar."

Snyder said the occasion was "a super Sunday, full of love for him." "He went from one celebration to the next, from celebrating with family and friends to celebrating with the Lord," the bishop said.

About 600 people attended the celebration, said Monsignor Mortimer Danaher, pastor of Christ the King.

Father Shashy was born in Nebik, Syria, and entered seminary in Lebanon when he was 12. He was ordained a priest of the Syrian Catholic Rite in his hometown on Feb. 16, 1936.

He served churches in Syria for 15 years before coming to Jacksonville, where his two brothers lived, in 1950. He became a U.S. citizen in 1957.

Father Shashy had served the Syrian Catholic community in Jacksonville for 36 years, conducting Mass according to the Syriac Rite every Sunday in the old Holy Rosary Catholic Church.

The Rev. Seamus 0'Flynn, who preached the homily at the anniversary Mass, said those who had been privileged to know Father Shashy did not have to be told that he fulfilled his priestly duties in an outstanding way.

"Like Christ before him, he made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant," O'Flynn said. "He served his community with devotion and zeal. He visited the sick in their homes and joyfully shared the happiness of others."

He said Father Shashy was loved by those he served because he always lifted people up, while the world was trying to drag them down.

O'Flynn concluded the homily, "When the Sanhedrin and High Priests brought in the Apostles on the first Pentecost, astounded at the success of their preaching, they said of them what we can truly say of Monsignor Shashy today, 'They had been with Jesus.' "

He is survived by two sisters, Mary Rizk and Wardi Nasrallah, who live in Syria; two sisters-in-law, Ranjes Shashy of Jacksonville and Mary Shashy of Ocala, and many nieces and nephews.

The funeral Mass will be at 1 p.m. tomorrow Christ the King, 742 Arlington Road. The Rosary will be said in the church at 7:30 tonight.