Born March 13, 1875 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was the son of Patrick Coyle and Mary McQuade. After elementary and high school education in the Catholic schools in Pittsburgh he entered the Passionist community. He professed his vows in Pittsburgh on February 16, 1893 and after study in various houses was ordained on June 21, 1899 in Baltimore, Maryland by Cardinal Gibbons. Just before he was ordained he volunteered to serve in the missions of South America. For more than twelve years he ministered there among the Spanish and English-speaking. Upon his return to the United States he was a professor of philosophy for a number of years and then he was assigned for a short period as parish priest at St. Joseph’s Monastery Church, Baltimore. When Father Paul Nussbaum, C.P. was consecrated a bishop for the diocese of Corpus Christi Father Coyle followed him there where he was an active preacher on horseback. After about five years he returned to Baltimore to serve as a parish priest and then was sent to Pittsburgh to assist in the construction of the Laymen’s Retreat House. When it was completed in 1920 he was appointed the first retreat director and remained in that position until 1925 when ill health required his removal from the position. During the next ten years he was assigned to parochial work and as a professor at St. Mary’s Monastery, Dunkirk, New York and Baltimore. In 1935 he returned to Pittsburgh because of a heart ailment and difficulty in reading which afflicted both eyes. Still he was a confessor at many locations in the city until his condition became serious in January 1941. He then went to Pittsburgh Hospital and Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh and finally St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore. He died at Mercy Hospital, Hempstead, New York.
Birth Date:
March 13, 1875
Profession Date:
June 21, 1899
Ordination Date:
June 21, 1899
Death Date:
August 31, 1941
Religious Name:
Edwin of the Sorrowful Mother Coyle