Background
Alexander Patrick Doyle was born on February 28, 1857 in San Francisco, California, United States. He was one of a family of six children—two of whom became nuns—born to Richard and Matilda (Shea) Doyle of San Francisco.
Alexander Patrick Doyle was born on February 28, 1857 in San Francisco, California, United States. He was one of a family of six children—two of whom became nuns—born to Richard and Matilda (Shea) Doyle of San Francisco.
Educated at first in the public schools and later under the auspices of the Jesuits and Christian Brothers, Alexander was graduated from St. Mary’s College, San Francisco, in 1875, and received his master’s degree a year later.
Aroused by a Paulist mission, Doyle entered the Congregation of St. Paul in 1875 and on completion of his theological studies was ordained, May 22, 1880—the first native Californian raised to the priesthood. For twelve years he served on the mission band, giving lectures on Catholic dogma and practises to non-Catholics and retreats for preachers throughout the United States and even in Canada and Mexico.
Although without special natural endowment for public speaking, he developed into a winning preacher and a popular confessor.
He was manager of the Paulist Press, and editor of the Catholic World (1893 - 1904), the leading Catholic magazine, for which he wrote reviews, editorials, and an occasional article; and he founded the Catholic Book Exchange for the dissemination of trac- tarian literature. As founder (1896) and secretary-treasurer of the Catholic Missionary Union, he collected money for the training of priests for domestic missions.
With Father Walter Elliott he established in 1902 the Apostolic Mission House as an allied school of the Catholic University (Washington, D. C. ) for the normal training of missionaries.
As rector of this institution he taught homiletics and pastoral theology, and for the last fifteen years of his life (from 1896) he edited The Missionary which he himself had founded. He was superior of Catholic chaplains in the army and navy, and President Taft found him “most careful, conscientious, and candid in his recommendations. ” Chaplains learned that they could rely on his pastoral counsel. Always active, seeking no rest save in rotation of labors, he finally suffered a breakdown in health, and he died in his native San Francisco. A devout priest, a liberal man, a friend of civic reform, and an ardent Republican, Father Doyle was widely acquainted among churchmen and political leaders.
Doyle was always active, seeking no rest save in rotation of labors.
Archbishop Ireland saw him as a true disciple of Father Hecker’s, a patriot and an apostle who was “priestly in every stepping. ”
Quotes from others about the person
“It was with Father Doyle that I first discussed the question of my taking some public stand on the matter of race suicide, it having been developed in one of our talks that we felt equally strong on the matter. I have never known any man work more unweariedly for the social betterment of the man, woman, or child whose chance of happiness is least in our modern life. Again and again in speeches which I made I drew largely on the great fund of his accumulated experience. ” (Theodore Roosevelt)
