DOYLE, William. - Irish Jesuit, b. 3 March 1873 at Melrose, Dalkey (Dublin), d. at Ypres on 16 Aug. 1917 in World War I.
He sought missionary work in the Congo, but his superiors assigned him instead to teaching and then to preaching. From 1908 to 1915 Fr. Doyle preached 152 missions and retreats. Animated by a lively zeal for souls and profound devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, combined with extraordinary cheerfulness and self-denial, he achieved remarkable success both as a missionary in the poorest districts and as a confessor. In his missions, he would go down at midnight to the docks to meet incoming boats, urging the crowds to promise to go to church or immediately accompanying them to confession; in the early morning he would already be waiting to meet factory workers or artisans on their way to work, with the same apostolic purpose. His preferred activities were retreats, spiritual exercises, the work of the Holy Childhood, and fostering priestly and religious vocations.
On 29 Sept. 1911 he made the vow “under pain of mortal sin, to be renewed daily, not to refuse Jesus any sacrifice when he clearly understood that He was asking it of him.” This vow was followed in 1913 by that “to give the Lord everything He asked for.” From then on his spirituality increasingly turned toward immolation and union with God, especially through frequent aspirations and ejaculatory prayers. From 15 Nov. 1915 he served as a military chaplain. He went to France with the 16th Division and, after two years of heroic service at Mazingarbe, Loos, and the Somme, known as the “trench padre,” he fell, struck by a shell while attending a wounded man. Two pamphlets remain from him: *Vocations*, Dublin 1913, which in two years had already reached two editions (100,000 copies), and *Shall I be a priest?*, 1915, which reached a seventh edition within months (400,000 copies). An English translation of the life of Fr. Ginnac written by A. Calvet is also extant.