DOYLE, WILLIAM. - Irish Jesuit, b. March 3, 1873 at Melrose, Dalkey (Dublin), fell at Ypres on Aug. 16, 1917 in the First World War.
Having asked for the Congo missions, his superiors instead assigned him to teaching and then to preaching. From 1908 to 1915 D. preached 152 missions and retreats. Animated by a most lively zeal for souls and by a profound devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, combined with an extraordinary cheerfulness and self-denial, he obtained wonderful successes, both as a missionary in the poorest districts and as a confessor. During missions, he would go down at midnight toward the pier, to meet the boats, in order to induce the crew to promise to go to church, or to accompany them at once to confession; early in the morning he was already waiting at the factory gates for the factory workers or the artisans going to work, with the same apostolic purpose. His favorite activities were retreats, spiritual exercises, the work of the Holy Childhood, and the fostering of priestly and religious vocations.
On Sept. 29, 1911 he made the vow "under pain of mortal sin, to be renewed daily, never to refuse Jesus any sacrifice, when he clearly understood that He was asking it of him." This vow was followed in 1913 by that "of giving the Lord whatever He asked of him, everything." From then on his spirituality tended ever more toward immolation and union with God, especially by means of very frequent aspirations and ejaculations. From Nov. 15, 1915 he was a military chaplain. He went to France with the 16th division, and after two years of heroism, at Mazingarbe, Loos, and on the Somme, called the "father of the trenches," he fell struck by a shell, while assisting a wounded man. Two pamphlets of his survive: Vocations, Dublin 1913, which in two years had already gone through two editions (100,000 copies), and Shall I be a priest?, ibid. 1915, which reached its 7th edition within a few months (40,000 copies). He translated into English the life of Fr. Ginhac written by A. Calvet.
Bibliography2 works
Arnaldo Lanz