Eric Doyle OFM Author

Eric Doyle OFM (1938–1984) was a Friar of the Province of the Immaculate Conception in Great Britain. A gifted scholar, theologian, orator and writer, his prime concern was always to bring the Franciscan message to the wider world. St Francis and the Song of Brotherhood and Sisterhood was the outcome of a lifetime lived imbued with the Franciscan spirit. In this book he examines not only humanity’s attitude towards creation, but also some of the specifically human questions which surface perennially: the possibility of world peace, the mystery of suffering, the presence of evil, the superiority of value and meaning over use and convenience, and the need for humility and gratitude.

Born in Bolton on 13 July 1938, the son of a mill-worker, Martin William Doyle was educated at St Joseph’s R.C. primary school and then, having obtained an academic scholarship, at Thornleigh Salesian College. He entered the Order of Friars Minor at the age of 16, having been inspired to do so by a book on the life of St Francis.[1] He made his solemn profession the day after his twenty-first birthday and was ordained to the priesthood on 16 July 1961, which required a dispensation in view of his young age. This was followed by studies in Rome, 1962-64, where Doyle trained as an ecclesiastical historian and where he received his doctorate summa cum laude.[2]

Inspired by the Second Vatican Council, Doyle was at the forefront of the renewal process and was tireless in his efforts to put the teaching of the Council into practice. The breadth of Doyle’s learning was immense and his vision wide, so that he brought astute and far-sighted observations to bear on many areas of theology including Christology, Ecclesiology, Franciscan Spirituality, Ecumenism, Ecology, Eschatology and Religious Life. He was a founding father of the Franciscan Study Centre in Canterbury, where he introduced Franciscan Studies, and a pioneer of the newly established ‘group-style’ of community living there. He lectured at home and abroad, gave many retreats (principally to priests and religious), took part in ARCIC I debates, and made over 500 programs for Anglia TV’s The Big Question and BBC Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day. He was a participant at the Second Scotistic Congress in Oxford/Edinburgh, at the first International ‘Terra Mater’ Seminar in Gubbio, an International Bonaventurian Congress in Rome, as well as numerous conferences on the work of Teilhard de Chardin, of which Association he was also vice-president. In addition, his enormous capacity for work enabled him to publish over 100 articles and two books during the course of his career.[3]

Recognized as an international scholar and lecturer, this theological multi-tasker’s focus was always on the present moment, ‘doing theology’, because standing as he did in the Franciscan intellectual tradition, theology of necessity always included a practical dimension, and for Doyle, also demanded contemporary relevance.[4] Much of his work was ahead of its time, prophetic even. Doyle was a humble and self-effacing man who did not seek his own aggrandizement; his was always a life of service. Extremely likeable and memorable, his irrepressible character, gentle humor and great kindness won him many friends and admirers, including some amongst the hierarchy of both the Catholic Church and Anglican Communion. A gifted speaker, he became the first Roman Catholic to address a huge congregation in Canterbury Cathedral since the Reformation.[5]

After Doyle’s sudden death at the early age of 46, Conrad Harkins OFM commented:

Friends of St Francis throughout the English-speaking world, to whom perhaps he was most familiar, know that in Eric’s transitus has departed one of the most vibrant Franciscans of this century.[6]

He was buried at the Friary in Chilworth on 31 August 1984 where the church was full to overflowing, and where over 100 priests concelebrated his Requiem Mass.

[1] This is information which Doyle himself shared with me, though he did not mention the book. There were only a handful of biographies of St Francis in print at that time and it is quite possible that the only access to books which Doyle could have read would have been in the school library. Given Doyle’s temperament and the availability of books my own view is that the book may well have been G.K. Chesterton’s St Francis of Assisi, of which I know he was very fond. In his ‘Select Bibliography on the Life and Message of St Francis,’ p.75, Doyle writes: ‘G.K. Chesterton’s book St Francis of Assisi reveals beyond doubt the heart of the Saint and what can only be called the utter genius of his holiness. Above all, Chesterton understood, as few have done, I think, St Francis’ love of particulars, of individual people, of animals, birds, stones. He writes with discernment and wisdom: “I have said that St Francis deliberately did not see the wood for the trees.  It is even more true that St Francis deliberately did not see the mob for the men”.’ It is, I believe, a book which would have appealed greatly to Doyle as a young boy.

[2] The full title of Doyle’s thesis was William Woodford OFM (c.1330-c.1400): His Life and Works together with a Study and Edition of his Responsiones contra Wiclevum et Lullardos which was published in Franciscan Studies 43 (1986), pp.17-187. This volume of Franciscan Studieswas dedicated to Doyle, in memory of his contribution to Franciscan scholarship. The editor wrote: ‘As a mark of gratitude and esteem, Fr Eric’s confreres and colleagues at the Franciscan Institute dedicate this issue to his memory.’ p.6.

[3] St Francis and the Song of Brotherhood (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1980). Re-printed: The Catholic Book Club, London, 1980 & 1981; Seabury Press, New York, 1981; Harper, San Francisco, 1984; Franciscan Institute Publications, New York, 1997 as St. Francis and the Song of Brotherhood and Sisterhood.

The Disciple and the Master: St Bonaventure’s Sermons on St Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Herald Press, Chicago, 1983).

[4] See S. Mulholland: “And this is the final point on the cruciform that is the shape of his theological quest: the impact that Francis of Assisi had on him personally as a Franciscan doing theology.  I say ‘doing’ theology because the Franciscan theological and intellectual tradition he had inherited, the tradition of Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, was that theology was ‘practical’ and its purpose to lead us to union with God in this life.” ‘The Character of Eric Doyle’s Theological Endeavour: Trinity, Christology, Ecclesiology, Franciscanology’ in A. Cirino and J. Raischl, eds., A Pilgrimage Through the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition (Franciscan International Study Centre, Canterbury, 2008), p.371.

[5] The Universe, ‘Thanks for 750 Years’ (20 Sept. 1974) reported: ‘Historian Fr Eric Doyle, O.F.M., due to give a festival lecture in the Chapter House, found himself transferred to the cathedral – and the pulpit – because of the large crowds who turned up to hear him.’

[6] C. Harkins OFM, ‘A Singer and his Song: Father Eric Doyle OFM, 1938-1984’ in The Cord 34.11 (Dec. 1984), p.321.