GOODIER, ALBAN. - Jesuit, ascetical writer, archbishop of Bombay, b. at Great Harwood (Lancashire) on 14 April 1869, d. at Teignmouth (Devonshire) on 13 March 1939. He studied at the Jesuit College at Stonyhurst and in 1887 entered the Society of Jesus. He was professor and prefect of studies first at Roehampton (1905-14), then at the College of St. Francis Xavier in Bombay (1914-19), where he was also rector from 1917. In 1919 he was consecrated archbishop of Bombay.
There he left a profound and extensive mark in the moral and social sphere; he founded St. Catherine's Rescue Home, St. Anthony's Home for the destitute, and St. Elisabeth's Nursing Home; but the difficulties and exertions undermined his health. Having resigned his office in 1926, he retired to London, exercising various ministries and assisting the cardinal and archbishop of Westminster. In his last years he was chaplain to the Benedictine nuns at Teignmouth, where he devoted himself to the composition of his ascetical works, shaped by the Exercises of St. Ignatius.
Worthy of mention are: The Passion and Death of our Lord (London 1930; Italian trans., Verona 1947); The public Life of our Lord Jesus Christus (2 vols., London 1931; Italian trans., Verona 1947); The Life that is Light (3 vols., London 1935); The inner life of the Catholic (ibid. 1935; Italian trans., Brescia 1935); An Introduction to the Study of ascetical and mystical Theology (London 1938).