Frank Duff
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Servant of God Frank Duff |
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| Founder, Legion of Mary | |
| Born | Francis Michael Duff 7 June 1889 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 7 November 1980 (aged 91) Dublin, Ireland |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church, esp. among members of the Legion of Mary |
Servant of God Francis Michael "Frank" Duff (7 June 1889 – 7 November 1980) was a native of Dublin, Ireland, the eldest child of a wealthy family. He is best known for bringing attention to the role of the laity during the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church, and for founding the Legion of Mary.
Frank Duff was born in Dublin in 1889, the eldest of seven children of John Duff (died 23 December 1918) and his wife, Susan Letitia (née Freehill; died 27 February 1950). The family lived at St. Patrick's Road, Drumcondra, Dublin. Duff attended Blackrock College, and, in 1908, entered the Civil Service, and was assigned to the Irish Land Commission.
Six years later, aged 24, he joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and was exposed to the real poverty of Dublin of that time. Many who lived in tenement squalor were forced to attend soup kitchens for sustenance, and some of the natural consequences of abject poverty, alcoholism and prostitution were rife in Dublin. Duff joined and soon rose through the ranks to President of the St. Patrick's Conference at St. Nicholas of Myra parish. Duff, having concern for the people he saw as materially and spiritually deprived, got the idea to picket Protestant soup kitchens and to set up rival Catholic soup kitchens. He and Sergeant Major Joe Gabbett, who had already been working at discouraging Catholics from patronizing Protestant soup kitchens, over the years succeeded in closing down two of them.
In 1916, aged 27, Duff published his first pamphlet, Can we be Saints?, in which he expressed the conviction that all without exception are called to be saints, and that through Christian faith all persons have available the means necessary to attain such sainthood.
He briefly acted as private secretary to Michael Collins, the chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-chief of the National Army. In 1924, he was transferred to the Department of Finance. He eventually retired from the Civil Service in 1934 to devote all of his time to the Legion of Mary.
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