An Irish priest who died in the First World War while attempting to assist wounded and dying soldiers is set to take a further step towards possible sainthood on Sunday. The Catholic Church in Ireland will hold a special service at Mullingar Cathedral, after which thousands of documents will be sent to the Vatican in support of the case for canonisation.
Fr Willie Doyle served as a chaplain with the British Army during some of the most deadly engagements of the war, including the Somme, Messines and Passchendaele. A native of Dublin, he was known for his bravery under fire, often crossing No Man’s Land to bring injured troops to safety or to sit with men who were mortally hurt.
Wartime service and death at Passchendaele
Doyle volunteered to become a military chaplain with the 16th (Irish) Division of the British Army after the war had already been going on for more than a year. He spent almost two years with the division, much of that time in the trenches of the Western Front. He was killed at the Battle of Passchendaele on 16 August 1917.
According to the account given, he was struck by shellfire as he went to help two wounded Protestant soldiers. One of them was a young officer from Belfast, 2nd Lt Arthur Vivian Green. The Catholic Church in Ireland regards him as an “ecumenical martyr of charity” because he died caring for soldiers from other Christian denominations.
Patrick Kenny, who founded the campaign group, said Doyle had been awarded the Military Cross for his conduct at the Somme and was mentioned in despatches on several occasions. Kenny also said the commander of the 16th (Irish) Division, Maj-Gen Sir William Bernard Hickie, regarded Doyle as the bravest man he had ever encountered. Kenny added that Doyle was held in high regard by his own men and was known for showing kindness to injured German prisoners of war.
Dublin association leads the campaign for canonisation
The push for sainthood is being driven by the Fr Willie Doyle Association, a Dublin-based group made up largely of lay people with clerical backing. It was established in 2020 by Patrick Kenny, a business school lecturer who lives not far from the area of south County Dublin where Doyle grew up. Kenny said he became deeply moved by Doyle’s courage after reading a biography of the priest.
Kenny described Doyle as a man of great heroism and, in his view, great holiness. He said Doyle’s letters home were so numerous that they now serve as an important eyewitness record for historians studying the Irish experience of the war. Kenny said that almost any book on the Irish in the First World War mentions Doyle.
Doyle was born William Joseph Gabriel Doyle in 1873 and grew up in the Dalkey area of Dublin in a comfortable, middle-class family. He was sent to a Catholic boarding school in England but came back to Ireland as a teenager, and by 18 he had started training to become a Jesuit priest. He was in his early forties when he went to the Front as a chaplain.
Kenny acknowledged that the process is at a very early stage. The Catholic Church has five steps to sainthood, and some of them can take many years to complete.
Diocesan inquiry and documents bound for Rome
The association petitioned the Irish Church to back its proposal, and the Church opened a diocesan inquiry in 2022. Kenny said the Diocese of Meath carried out a wide-ranging investigation, including a theological commission that examined Doyle’s writings and a historical commission that studied his life. A diocesan tribunal also interviewed experts to assess the religious influence Doyle had on those who venerated him.
Kenny said the material gathered totals close to 3,500 pages. All of it is due to be taken to Rome, where the next stage of the process will begin.
Bishop Tom Deenihan, the Bishop of Meath, was filmed this week preparing parcels of evidence for Vatican review. He said Doyle’s example, as an Irish Catholic priest who died serving as a British Army chaplain, had much to offer at a time when nationality and denomination can become divisive. The bishop also said Doyle’s spirituality and example resonated strongly with Generation Z.
Members of the Doyle family have been invited to attend the Mullingar ceremony on Sunday afternoon alongside Irish bishops. The event will mark the final public session of the diocesan tribunal, after which the remaining documents will be gathered and added to the bundles destined for Rome. In keeping with tradition, the parcels were wrapped in red ribbon and sealed with wax. Bishop Deenihan said the ritual is closely prescribed by church regulation, and that the rest of the documentation, including the minutes of the final session, will be sealed during the cathedral ceremony.
The bishop called the occasion an important moment for the Church in Ireland and said he was confident the case would succeed.
