John Christopher Drumgoole was an American Catholic priest. It was his theory that no youngsters are incorrigible provided they have properly displayed before them as a model the life of one who is “poor, honest, industrious, hard-working and virtuous”
Background
John Christopher Drumgoole was born on August 15, 1816 in County Longford, Ireland. When he was eight years old, his widowed mother, who had preceded him to America, sent for him to join her in New York. There he took up the trade of a cobbler. Of a devout nature even in childhood, he attracted the notice of his priests and was after a while made teacher in a kind of mission Sunday-school. In 1844, on the invitation of one of his clerical friends, he became a sexton. For a short period around 1850, in addition to his work as sexton, he helped run a small bookstore near his church.
Education
In 1863 Drumgoole began a course of study preparatory to entering the ministry. This was the only break in the routine of his life till 1863 when he began a course of study preparatory to entering the ministry—first at St. Francis Xavier College in New York, next at St. John’s College in Ford- ham, and finally, in 1865, at the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels, near Niagara Falls.
Career
Drumgoole took up the trade of a cobbler. Of a devout nature even in childhood, he attracted the notice of his priests and was after a while made teacher in a kind of mission Sunday-school.
In 1844, on the invitation of one of his clerical friends, he became a sexton.
For a short period around 1850, in addition to his work as sexton, he helped run a small bookstore near his church.
He was ordained in May 1869 and sent as a priest to the church where he had formerly been sexton.
His passion to be useful had long since put him in contact with the victims of squalor and wretchedness, and in the late sixties he considered devoting his life to mission work among the freedmen.
In 1871, however, he found in New York a type of work for which he was superbly fitted.
The new priest volunteered to try his hand at making it justify itself.
Before he assumed control in the fall of 1871 the number of lodgers had fallen to fifteen, but by the end of 1873 it was necessary to increase the original quarters three times.
The value of his work was widely recognized, and in November 1875 his hold on the public confidence was attested by the fact that he raised nearly Drury $15, 000.
His most notable monument is the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, built in 1881.
His entire career derived its character and strength from his deep piety and expansive human sympathy.
