Father Hugh Carroll, C.P., St. Paul of the Cross Province (1900-1969)

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Born on July 27, 1900 in Jessup, Pennsylvania, he was the son of Hugh and Catherine Gill Carroll. He graduated from St. Thomas Preparatory School in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1916 and then worked for five years for the Lackawanna Railroad. In 1921 he entered Holy Cross Seminary in Dunkirk, New York. On August 15, 1924 he professed his vows as a Passionist at St. Paul of the Cross Monastery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His studies were done at the Passionist monasteries in Brighton, Massachusetts, Scranton, Union City, New Jersey and Jamaica, New York where he was ordained on February 8, 1931. After Sacred Eloquence at Our Mother of Sorrows Monastery, West Springfield, Massachusetts he went to work for Sign magazine as a promoter and preacher from 1932 to 1936. He returned to this ministry from 1951 to 1958. In the fall of 1936 he was assigned to St. Joseph’s Parish, Union City, New Jersey where Father Conrad Eiben, C.P. was the pastor. During December 1939 he staged a huge “Feather Party” for the poor of the parish.

During World War II he served as a military chaplain in the U.S. Army. He saw duty in the South Pacific, the Solomons, New Caledonia, New Canaan, Okinawa and Japan. He was awarded medals for the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign, the American Defense Service Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and the Army Occupation Medal.

When the war was over he resided at the Jamaica monastery and went out to preach missions and retreats throughout the eastern United States and Canada until 1951. In 1958 he was appointed to the provincial staff as Mission Secretary until 1961 at which time he was assigned to St. Mary’s Parish, Dunkirk, New York. In 1967 he moved to Scranton. He had suffered from small strokes (cerebral thrombosis) and died from a cardiac arrest in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He had served at St. Ann’s Monastery, Scranton as Director of the Confraternity of the Passion since 1967. Passionist Fathers Ronan and Alban Carroll were his blood brothers.

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