Servant of God Frank Duff

Francis Michael Duff (7 June 1889 – 7 November 1980), was an Irish lay Catholic and author known for bringing attention to the role of the Catholic laity during the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church. Duff had previously founded the Legion of Mary in his native city of Dublin, Ireland. He was born in Dublin on 7 June 1889, at 97 Phibsboro Road, the eldest of seven children of John Duff (died 23 December 1918) and his wife, Susan Letitia (née Freehill, died 27 February 1950). The wealthy family lived in the city at St Patrick's Road, Drumcondra. Duff attended Blackrock College. In 1908, he entered the Civil Service and was assigned to the Irish Land Commission. In 1913, he joined the Society of St Vincent de Paul and was exposed to the real poverty of Dublin. Many who lived in tenement squalor were forced to attend soup kitchens for sustenance, and abject poverty, alcoholism, street gangs, and organized prostitution were rife in parts of Dublin. Duff joined and soon rose through the ranks to become President of the Saint Patrick's Conference at Saint Nicholas of Myra Parish. 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. 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. They succeeded in closing down two of them over the years. In 1916, Duff published his first pamphlet, Can we be Saints? where he expressed the conviction that all are called to be saints without exception, and that through Christian faith, all have the means necessary.