Culture

A print depicting Patrick Donahoe, a prominent Boston Irish Catholic of the 19th century and founding editor of The Pilot. Pilot file photo

From the Archdiocesan Archives

The funeral of Pilot founding editor Patrick Donahoe

Friday, April 3, 2026Culture

Just over 125 years ago, on March 20, 1901, mourners filled the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for the funeral of Patrick Donahoe, founding editor of The Pilot.
Born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1811, Patrick Donahoe immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 10. At 21, he became editor of the Catholic newspaper The Jesuit, which had been founded by Boston's Bishop Benedict J. Fenwick in 1829. Before long, Donahoe and a business partner took over ownership of the paper. In 1836, they would rename their publication The Pilot. The paper became an enormous success, a leading voice in Catholic and Irish news and opinion with a national circulation. Within a few decades of launching his newspaper, Patrick Donahoe was the richest Catholic in New England.
He was generous with his wealth, showing a special concern for neglected children and orphans. It was Donahoe's contribution that largely funded the construction of the Home for Destitute Catholic Children on Harrison Avenue, built in 1870. He was likewise a benefactor of St. Vincent Orphan Asylum for girls in Cambridge. Because of this, at his funeral, "the children of St. Vincent's Orphanage and of the Home for Destitute Catholic Children were present in a body recalling that these two institutions had been especially indebted and life-long dear to him."

The little ones present for the funeral were joined by thousands of others -- a veritable "who's who" of Boston at the turn of the 20th century. "Long before the funeral procession entered," The Pilot reported, "the great church was filled with personal friends, representatives of religious orders of men and women, delegations from the many societies with which Mr. Donahoe had been connected." There was Congressman John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, grandfather of John F. Kennedy and future Mayor of Boston. There was Rear Admiral George E. Belknap, a Civil War hero who once commanded the Asiatic Squadron for the United States Navy. There were judges and doctors, academics and bankers, and many, many leaders of Irish-American organizations.
Then, there were the clergy, who turned out en masse as they would for the funeral of a prelate. The cathedral's rector, Father Henry A. Sullivan, was the principal celebrant of the Mass. Archbishop John J. Williams himself pronounced the final absolution.
All had assembled to bid farewell to a man whose life had been synonymous with the growth and ascendency of Catholicism in the Archdiocese of Boston. Once a small, persecuted minority that could fit into a single church, at Donahoe's death, the Archdiocese of Boston comprised some 850,000 Catholics.
Only a few months before his death, Patrick Donahoe had been asked, "What is the greatest achievement you have seen in your lifetime?" He considered the question carefully, noting that in his life he had seen the advent of railroads, steamboats, street cars, the telegraph and the telephone. "But what seems to me to have been the greatest achievement of my time," he said, "has been the progress of the Irish race in America and, as I have observed it, in Boston."
In Boston, the progress of the Irish went hand in hand with the progress of the Catholic Church. When Patrick Donahoe arrived in Boston, there was only one church in the City of Boston: The Cathedral of the Holy Cross. At the time of his death, there were more than 40. There were Catholic schools and colleges, charitable organizations and hospitals, to say nothing of innumerable organizations of lay men and women.
And yet, Patrick Donahoe's own life had not been a straightforward march toward progress. In his later years, he experienced utter financial ruin, beginning with the destruction of The Pilot Building on Franklin Street in the Great Boston Fire of 1872. Following the fire, Donahoe's finances were devastated by two more fires at subsequent locations. Crushing debt followed; by 1876, The New York Times reported on the "Wonderful Success and Sudden Fall of a Boston Irishman," referring to Donahoe. In 1876, he was forced to sell The Pilot. Archbishop Williams purchased three-fourths of the paper, with John Boyle O'Reilly purchasing the other fourth. It would be 14 years before Donahoe could claw his way out of debt, repurchase his paper, and resume its editorship.
Though his reputation had been tarnished, it was not irreparably damaged. Donahoe had been too significant a figure in Irish and Catholic circles for too many years. He had made too many friends among those who, once marginalized, had managed to establish themselves as worthy citizens. These friends now crammed into the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, awaiting their turn to pass the bier of Patrick Donahoe.
Following the Mass, the solemn procession made its way to South Boston, where Patrick Donahoe was laid to rest at St. Augustine Cemetery.

VIOLET HURST IS AN ARCHIVIST FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.

- Violet Hurst is an archivist for the Archdiocese of Boston.