21 Facts About Frank Duff

Frank Duff had previously founded the Legion of Mary in his native city of Dublin, Ireland.

Frank Duff was born in Dublin on 7 June 1889, at 97 Phibsboro Road, the eldest of seven children of John Duff and his wife, Susan Letitia.

Frank Duff joined and soon rose through the ranks to become President of the Saint Patrick's Conference at Saint Nicholas of Myra Parish.

Frank Duff, having concern for people he saw as materially and spiritually deprived, had the idea to picket Protestant soup kitchens as he considered they were giving aid in the form of food and free accommodation at hostels, in return for not attending Catholic services.

Frank Duff set up rival Catholic soup kitchens and, with his friend, Sergeant Major Joe Gabbett, who had already been working at discouraging Catholics from patronizing Protestant soup kitchens.

Frank Duff was additionally influenced by the writings of John Henry Newman.

Frank Duff briefly acted as private secretary to Michael Collins, then-Chairman of the Provisional Government and commander-in-chief of the National Army.

On 7 September 1921 Frank Duff was a part of a meeting alongside Fr Michael Toher and fifteen women which became the nucleus of what would become the Legion of Mary.

In 1922, Frank Duff defied the wishes of the Archbishop of Dublin and the widespread Crypto-Calvinism, or Jansenism, within the Catholic Church in Ireland, which had created an intense hostility towards both prostitutes and other allegedly "fallen women".

Similarly to St Vitalis of Gaza before him, Frank Duff began an outreach to the prostitutes living in often brutal and inhuman conditions in the "kip houses" of "the Monto", as Dublin red-light district, one of the largest in Europe at the time, was then called.

In 1927 Frank Duff established the Morning Star hostel for homeless men, followed shortly by the Regina Coeli hostel for homeless women in 1930.

In communication with banned Irish writers Sean O'Faolain and Peadar O'Donnell, Frank Duff suggested he was far more censored than even they were.

Frank Duff did have some supporters amongst the Catholic hierarchy though; with the backing of Cardinal Joseph MacRory and Francis Bourne of Westminster, the Legion was able to expand rapidly and internationally.

Frank Duff was able to use the occasion of the 1932 Eucharistic Congress as a means to introduce the Legion of Mary to visiting foreign bishops, leading to even further international growth.

Frank Duff retired from the Civil Service in 1934 to devote all of his time to the Legion of Mary.

Frank Duff personally funded the purchase of a building for the club using funds from an inheritance.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI invited Frank Duff to attend the Second Vatican Council as a lay observer.

When Frank Duff was introduced to the assembly by Archbishop John Heenan of Liverpool, he received a standing ovation.

Frank Duff made the promotion of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus part of the Legion's apostolate.

Frank Duff died at 91 on 7 November 1980 in Dublin and was interred in Glasnevin Cemetery.

In July 1996, the cause of Frank Duff's beatification was introduced by Cardinal Desmond Connell.