Father Thomas Higgins is the priest of St. Michael's Catholic Church in Duston Heights, Massachusetss where Johnny Dixon and his grandparents attend, and has an extensive knowledge of Catholic rites that have proven useful on various occasions in exorcising spirits and other demonic entities.
Higgins is merely mentioned as the local priest in the first Dixon adventure, The Curse of the Blue Figurine. It is not until the third book, The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull, that the character is given a much larger role when Higgins replaces Professor Childermass as Johnny's older and educated friend. Spell allows Bellairs to expand on the character, providing us with some historical background (a World War II veteran who was wounded in a battle in Guam) and well as interests (playing guitar and traveling).
After this Higgins seldom appears, though when he does his character is regulated to minor roles. In the Spell sequel, The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost, the priest appears only in a brief scene to try and exorcise the Windrow spirit from Johnny. Later, in The Eyes of the Killer Robot, Higgins shows up toward the end as the umpire in the local baseball strikeout contest. It is not until 1990's The Secret of the Underground Room that Higgins plays an important part in the on-going series, first by being relocated from Duston Heights to nearby Rocks Village. After his transfer the spirit of a long dead De Marisco knight take possession of the priest and leads him on a strange mission across England. Once again we learn a bit more about the priest as his friends attempt to track him down from one side of the continent to the other.
Higgins reverts back to token confidant and advisor in The Drum, the Doll and the Zombie and stays as such throughout the three Brad Strickland-penned Dixon adventures.
Bellairs grew up in the Catholic Church and the background of Catholicism runs throughout nearly all of his writings, starting with St. Fidgeta (1966). Father Higgins plays a rather unique role in that he is the only regular character in all of Bellairs' young-adult fiction to be closely connected to the church, giving the Dixon series slightly more religious overtones. Like Johnny, Lewis Barnavelt attends church and is an altar boy, though it is seldom mentioned; however Anthony Monday says his parents didn't go to church and therefore must have certain religious rites and relics explained to him [The Dark Secret of Weatherend, 31].
Father Thomas Higgins shares a name similar to that of Father George Higgens, who said Sunday Mass at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church for two years (1946-1948), the church the Bellairs family attended in Marshall.
