1798 – 1869 (October 23)
James Kyle was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland in 1797, the uncle of Patrick A. Stanton, who also became a member of the American Mission. James began his studies in the Irish house of Callan in 1823, and was received into the novitiate there on September 22, 1828. At his profession the following year, he took the religious name Thomas, by which he thereafter was known. and was a member of the Galway Augustinian Community. Before he left for the United States in 1838, he had been stationed in Callan, Ross, Drogheda and Galway. He arrived in Philadelphia on September 2, and on the following Sunday preached his first sermon in Saint Augustine Church. For a short period in 1839 he ministered at Saint Paul’s in Brookly, N.Y. It was Father Kyle who, in 1841, purchased the Belle Air Estate for $18,000, against the will of Fathers Moriarty and O’Dwyer. He served as temporary superior of Saint Augustine’s when it was burned by the “Know Nothings” in 1844. He later worked with Father Moriarty in Europe in collecting funds to rebuild Saint Augustine’s.
Father Kyle served on the missions under the Bishop of Albany for some years. From 1855 to 1859, he was stationed at Villanova. Later he had charge of the missions at Saint Thomas the Apostle in Ivy Mills and at Saint Aloysius in Pottstown, PA.
Father Kyle was 71 when he died in Philadelphia on October 23, 1869. He is buried at Saint Augustine’s.
