Born in Mayo, Ireland in May of 1820.
Taking of the habit in Marseilles on December 7, 1844.
Oblation at N.-D. de l’Osier on December 8, 1845 (No. 151)
Ordination to the priesthood at Marseilles, June 27, 1847
Dispense from his vows in 1853
Died in Ottawa on January 7, 1866.
Thomas Boyle was born in Mayo, Ireland in May of 1820. He began his novitiate at the major seminary of Marseilles on December 7, 1844 and made his oblation at Notre-Dame de l’Osier on December 8, 1845. He had been admitted to perpetual vows at the October 27, 1845 session of the General Council. It was said of him that he was “eccentric and a bit weird,” but “with good qualities” and talents which would make of him “an above average individual.”
He subsequently studied theology at the major seminary of Marseilles until his ordination to the priesthood on June 27, 1847. He spent the 1847-1848 academic year with a few scholastic brothers at Notre-Dame de Lumières. Father Martin, the superior, wrote to Bishop de Mazenod in the fall of 1847: Father Boyle was in “a downcast state of boredom which requires a good bit of attention […] Nothing can calm his riotous imagination. He has to assume a British air.” On March 6, 1848 he wrote yet again: “Father Boyle is completely happy with the news that Father Tempier gave him. He is a little bored here and he views with pleasure the prospect that he will soon be able to make himself useful in his glorious homeland.”
Father Boyle received his obedience for Canada. He worked in the college of Ottawa in 1849-1850, at Farrellton in the province of Quebec where he served as parish priest from 1850 to 1853. He subsequently obtained a dispensation from his vows and served as parish priest in various parishes in Ontario not far outside of Ottawa: Plantagenet (1853), Curran (1853-1855), South Gloucester (1855-1860), Osgood (1860-1866). He died in Ottawa on January 7, 1866.
Yvon Beaudoin
and Gaston Carrière, o.m.i.
