C&SI are joined on this weeks podcast by Pat Keey, president of the Fr Willie Doyle Association to share with us the story of this heroic priest and chaplain who died during World War I. Posited as an ecumenical martyr of charity who died while attending to soldiers on the front, Pat Kenny (president of the Fr Willie Doyle Association) joins us on this weeks podcast to share the story of Fr Willie Doyle and the fact that his cause for canonisation has been formally been opened.
Fr Doyle was renowned for his heroism as a military chaplain during World War I, and since his death on 16 August 1917, he has developed a reputation for sanctity and intercessory power. His cause was formally opened at a ceremony in the cathedral of Christ the King on Sunday 20 November 2022.
Willie Doyle SJ was born in Dublin in 1873 to an affluent Catholic family and entered the Society of Jesus in 1891. He taught in two Jesuit schools, Clongowes Wood College and Belvedere College and was ordained in 1908. He volunteered as a chaplain in WW1.
Willie Doyle SJ has touched the lives of many people, especially those he ministered to in the hellish trenches of the First World War. He was renowned for his selfless care of the young soldiers in that war, for his heroism, and his deep penitential spirituality. Many draw attention to his sense of humour, positive attitude, and upbeat disposition which supported the soldiers to whom he was chaplain during dark and dangerous times in the trenches.
He was also known as a practical joker who from an early age displayed tender care for all those he came in contact with, and from an early age. he continues to fascinate people today, one hundred years on from his death in the First World War.
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