KIRLIN, JOSEPH

Pastor, author; b. Philadelphia, PA, March 20, 1868;d. Philadelphia, Nov. 26, 1926. He was educated by the Christian Brothers at La Salle College, Philadelphia, receiving an A.B. in 1886. That fall he began to study for the priesthood at St. Charles Seminary, Overbrook, PA, and continued at The catholic university of america, Washington, D.C. He was ordained on Dec. 17, 1892, and obtained a bachelor's degree in sacred theology the following year. While assistant at St. Patrick's Church, Philadelphia, he published the Life of Most Reverend Patrick John Ryan (1903), planned as part of a complete history of the Catholic Church in Philadelphia. By 1909 he had completed his large volume, Catholicity in Philadelphia, a work rich in facts about the Colonial and Revolutionary periods. Kirlin was disappointed with the indifferent reception this book received, and later turned to devotional writing. In 1920, when he was named a papal chamberlain, he began to contribute to Emmanuel, the magazine of the national Priest's Eucharistic League. From his monthly articles there grew a trilogy of works: One Hour with Him (1923), Our Tryst with Him (1925), and With Him in Mind (1926). Kirlin preached and lectured widely on the Eucharistic movement. His sermons were published posthumously in 1929 as Christ the Builder. His Priestly Virtue and Zeal, also appearing in 1929, was a study of the Curé of Ars. Shortly before his death Kirlin accepted the presidency of the Catholic University Alumni Association and that of the American Catholic Historical Society. He had long been pastor of the Most Precious Blood Parish, which he founded in Philadelphia in 1907.

[h. j. nolan]