Servant of God Monsignor Quinn Some time ago I read the Life of Father William Doyle, the Irish Jesuit-Chaplain, who was killed in the late World War. It was made up chiefly from a Diary which he kept, and which, I am sure, he never intended for eyes other than his own. What struck me most in his life was the fact that this good missionary priest had never done …
Fr Doyle links
January 15, 2016
O’Rahilly’s biography of Fr Doyle is a remarkable source of information about Fr Doyle’s life and spirituality. However, there is another book about Fr Doyle entitled Merry in God. This is sometimes credited to O’Rahilly as well. However, it was published anonymously, and was in fact written by Fr Charles Doyle SJ, Fr Willie’s older brother. Below is a link to a scan of a section in the book dealing …
December 25, 2015
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Today is the feast of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, one of the most famous and popular Catholics of recent times. Mother Teresa was Albanian, but she lived in Dublin for a number of years while she was a Loreto sister. In fact, the house she lived in was in Rathfarnham, very close to the Jesuit house there where Fr Doyle had spent some time. The young …
September 5, 2015
Instead of a quote from Fr Doyle, today we present, courtesy of the Irish Messenger, a scanned copy of a booklet published in 1931 entitled “Father Willie”. It seems appropriate to look at this booklet today, the day following his anniversary. And the title of today’s post, suggesting that Fr Doyle is a “wonder worker” is not mine, but rather comes from this Jesuit pamphlet. No author is mentioned for …
August 17, 2015
Fr Doyle’s anniversary is in two days time – August 16. It is an excellent time to tell people about his life and his message. I always find that people are amazed at is life and his heroism when they first encounter him – this, at least, has been my experience and the experience of many people that I know. Perhaps it would be good to take the opportunity of …
August 14, 2015
Today we have the last of Fr Doyle’s narratives from his letters home to his father in August 1917, less than a week before his death. In this entry in his letter we see his close brush with death in the form of a shell landing very close to him. Close beside us I had found the remains of a dug-out which had been blown in the previous day and …
August 11, 2015
A nun in South Africa wrote the following letter on this day (July 12) in 1922, alleging a favour through Fr Doyle’s intercession: One of our Community had for some time been seriously ill in a sanatorium. One evening I got a telephone message to say Sister was on the point of death and that the doctor declared there was no hope unless a change took place at once. I …
July 12, 2015
This website was launched 5 years ago today. At the time, I wasn’t sure how it would develop or whether anyone would be interested or whether I would have personally have the interest, or material, to keep it going. I honestly never thought that I would still be running it 5 years later. I guess I now know the answer to all of these questions! The last five years shows …
June 7, 2015
I am convinced that generally we reach sanctity of life only through a long series of falls from which we get up. COMMENT: Fr Doyle had a very realistic understanding of our human nature. He too struggled with temptations and with his own defects, but like the saints he realised that we do not battle alone, but rather with the help of our loving God, of our guardian angel and …
February 20, 2015
Lent is almost upon us again. How quickly time passes… Many people adopt the habit of reading good spiritual book during the Lent. I can think of no better book to read than Professor Alfred O’Rahilly’s biography of Fr Doyle. It is a masterpiece on many levels – a psychologically astute review of Fr Doyle’s character, a wonderful history of World War I that reads like a novel and a …
February 12, 2015