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Peter Christopher Yorke (13 August 1864 – 4 April 1925) was an American
Irish Catholic Irish Catholics () are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland, defined by their adherence to Catholic Christianity and their shared Irish ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heritage.The term distinguishes Catholics of Irish descent, particul ...
priest and an
Irish Republican Irish republicanism () is the political movement for an Irish republic, void of any British rule. Throughout its centuries of existence, it has encompassed various tactics and identities, simultaneously elective and militant and has been both w ...
and
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
activist in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
.


Early life

Born on Galway's Long Walk on 13 August 1864, he was the youngest child of Gregory Yorke, a sea captain, and his wife, Bridget, née Kelly. Gregory Yorke died six months before Peter was born. The Yorke family were originally from
Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...
, where the name was spelled Jorke. Peter Yorke's grandfather, Christopher Yorke, came to Galway in the early 19th century, building lighthouses and breakwaters in Galway, Aran and Westport.


Priesthood

In 1882, after initially schooling at
Coláiste Iognáid Coláiste Iognáid SJ (), a bilingual secondary school, is located on Sea Road in Galway, Ireland. It was founded in 1645 and has had numerous locations over the years before its current home. The college is a co-educational, non-fee-paying sec ...
Galway, Yorke then graduated from
St. Jarlath's College St Jarlath's College () is a Catholic co-educational secondary school in Tuam, County Galway. The college was founded in 1800 and in 2009 absorbed St. Patrick's College, Tuam. The College, which operates under patronage of the Archbishop of Tua ...
in
Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...
. He then went to
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth (), is a pontifical Catholic university in the town of Maynooth near Dublin, Ireland. The college and national seminary on its grounds are often referred to as Maynooth College. The college was of ...
, where he studied for four years before being adopted by the
Archdiocese of San Francisco The Archdiocese of San Francisco (Latin: ''Archdiœcesis Sancti Francisci''; Spanish: ''Arquidiócesis de San Francisco'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the Unit ...
. He was ordained in 1887. He was pastor of St. Peter's in 1914. In San Francisco, he became the editor of ''The Monitor'', the official newspaper of the archdiocese. In 1901, he supported the workers in a
Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a trade union, labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a di ...
strike. In 1902, he founded and edited a local newspaper called ''The Leader''. Yorke was the author of the best-selling textbook ''The Ghosts of Bigotry'', originally republished in San Francisco 1913 from new plates, the originals having been destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906. It was the genesis work of the
Catholic Truth Society Catholic Truth Society (CTS) is a body that prints and publishes Catholic literature, including apologetics, prayerbooks, spiritual reading, and lives of saints. It is based in London, United Kingdom. The CTS had been founded in 1868 by Cardi ...
, in response to an anti-Catholic literary campaign by the American Protestant Association, and a frank account of the "Black Myths" of English Protestant opposition to the Roman Catholic Church from the reign of
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...
through to Catholic Emancipation and the
Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 The Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 ( 14 & 15 Vict. c. 60) was an act of the British Parliament which made it a criminal offence for anyone outside the established "United Church of England and Ireland" to use any episcopal title "of any city, ...
in the 19th century. Its concluding chapter sets the scene of Catholic resurgence in the USA. The publisher was the Text Book Publishing Company, 641 Stevenson Street.


Legacy

Yorke is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in
Colma, California Colma (Ohlone for "Springs") is a small incorporated List of municipalities in California, town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,507 at the 2020 U ...
. Every Palm Sunday the United Irish Societies of San Francisco hold a memorial celebration of Peter Yorke at Holy Cross Cemetery. Following the Palm Sunday Mass at All Saints Chapel, there is a short procession to his graveside. There poems, music and speeches celebrate his life. A short street called Peter Yorke Way in San Francisco, which runs from the junction of Geary Boulevard and Gough Street to Post Street, is named after him. The headquarters of the archdiocese is located at 1 Peter Yorke Way.


References

* Joseph S. Brusher, Consecrated Thunderbolt: Father Yorke of San Francisco (Hawthorne, New Jersey: Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., 1973) *Sr. Mary Camilla Fitzmaurice, Historical Development of the Educational Thought of the Reverend Peter C. Yorke, 1893–1925 (1963) *James P. Walsh, Ethnic Militancy: An Irish Catholic Prototype (San Francisco: R and E Research Associates, 1972) *Priscilla F. Knuth, Nativism in California, 1886–1897.
God give us men



External links


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* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yorke, Peter 1864 births 1925 deaths 19th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Christian clergy from Galway (city) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Irish revolutionaries 19th-century American Roman Catholic priests People educated at Coláiste Iognáid