Rev. Peter C. Yorke
To Rev. Peter C. York [sic] D.D.
Editor, "The Leader"
with compliments
Capt Francis O'Neill
Chicago
Nov 12th 1907
Father Peter C. Yorke
Memorial Collection
Presented to
St. Albert's College Library
by Father John J. Hunt
Rev. Peter Christopher Yorke (1864–1925)
Reverend Peter Christopher Yorke was born on August 15, 1864 in Galway, Ireland to parents Gregory and Bridget Yorke. Following the death of his father when Peter was only six months old, his mother married John Humphrey. Yorke attended St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland before immigrating to America in 1886 to attend Seminary at St. Mary’s University in Baltimore, Maryland, and was ordained in December 1887.
In 1888 Yorke moved to San Francisco to join the rest of his family who had emigrated to the city while he was still attending school in Ireland. However, Yorke quickly left for Washington, D.C. in 1889 to study at the Catholic University of America as the first class cohort of the school. Yorke graduated with an S.T.L degree (Licentiate in Sacred Theology) in 1891, and returned to San Francisco where he resided for most of his life serving in various capacities. Some of Yorke’s appointments include chancellor of the Archdiocese of San Francisco (1894–99), St. Anthony’s in Oakland (1903–13), and St. Peter’s (1913–25).
Throughout his career, Yorke was highly involved as a political and labor activist. He supported the working class in the teamsters’ strike (1901) and street railway strike (1906–07), formed the American Women’s Liberal League and the Catholic Truth Society of San Francisco, and served as Vice President of the National Catholic Educational Association.
As an editor and author, Yorke served as the editor of the weekly archdiocese newspaper, The Monitor (1894–99). In 1902 Yorke founded the weekly newspaper The Leader, which promoted pro-labor and the ideals of the encyclical Rerum Novarum issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891. In addition to his editorial responsibilities, Yorke published educational religious books such as The Mass (1921), Alter and Priest (1913), and The Ghosts of Bigotry (1897).
Yorke passed on April 4, 1925 and is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California. His legacy is remembered each year with a procession to his grave following Palm Sunday Mass at All Saints Chapel. In addition, a street in San Francisco was named after Yorke, and is home to the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Bibliography:
Cronin, B. C. "Yorke, Peter Christopher." In New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., 895-896. Vol. 14. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2003.
Walsh, James P. and Timothy Foley. “Father Peter C. Yorke Irish-American Leader.” Studia Hibernica 14, no. 14 (1974): 90–103.
Scibilia, Dominic Pasquale. Edward McGlynn, Thomas McGrady, and Peter C. Yorke: Prophets of American Social Catholicism. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1990.
(Biography and accompanying details by Micah Bland)
