Background

Joseph Louis Jerome Kirlin, the son of Patrick and Anne Kirlin, immigrants from Ulster, Ireland, was born on March 20, 1868 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Education

Kirlin was trained by the Christian Brothers at St. Paul's School and at La Salle College and graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1886. Thereafter he studied theology at the Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo in Overbrook and at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C. , where he earned a theological degree (1893). He was ordained on December 17, 1892, by the papal delegate, Cardinal Satolli.

Career

Kirlin was appointed to curacies at Ivy Mills, at St. Joachim's Church, Frankford (1894 - 1901), and at St. Patrick's Church in Philadelphia (1901 - 1907). In 1903 he wrote a Life of the Most Reverend Patrick John Ryan, which gave him entrée into literary circles and whetted his interest in local church history, with the result that he published Catholicity in Philadelphia (1909), an example of what can be done in diocesan history.

In 1907 he organized the new parish of the Most Precious Blood, Philadelphia, and soon built a large church and school. While continuing as rector, he was named in 1912 diocesan director of the Priests' Eucharistic League. In 1920 he was made a private chamberlain to the Pope. As a result of his devotional studies, he became sufficiently known to merit a place as a preacher and a reader of a paper at the international Eucharistic Congress at Chicago (1926).

Despite ill health, he maintained an interest in civic affairs to the last, serving on one of the Philadelphia Sesqui-Centennial committees. In 1920 he wrote a series of meditative, doctrinal articles for Emmanuel, published in book form as Christ the Builder (1929). He was also the author of three devotional books: One Hour with Him (1923), Our Tryst with Him (1925), and With Him in Mind (1926). He left an unfinished manuscript which was published after his death under the title, Priestly Virtue and Zeal, a Study of the Life of St. John Baptist Vianney, the Curé d'Ars and Patron of Priests, Applied to the Sacerdotal Life of Today (1928).

Achievements

• Joseph L. Kirlin was remembered as a devoted preacher, as a social worker among the poor, as an advocate of temperance, and promoter of temperance and parochial societies. He was the founder of the parish of the Most Precious Blood in Philadelphia and was a major contributor to Catholic periodicals. One of his most important work was Catholicity in Philadelphia (1909).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Priestly Virtue and Zeal: A study of the life of St. John Baptist Vianney, the curé d'Ars and patron of priests, applied to the sacerdotal life of today

    (hardcover, no dust jacket. well read binding as some page...)

  • With Him In Mind
  • One hour with Him,
  • Our Tryst With Him

Connections

Father:

Patrick Kirlin

Mother:

Anne Kirlin

References

• Catholicity in Philadelphia: From the Earliest Missionaries Down to the Present Time