Born on May 25, 1900 he was the son of Patrick J. McDermott and Winifred Finn. After a local education he attended Boston College and Saint Anslem’s College. During a retreat in his senior year, with the assistance of his spiritual director he decided to enter the Passionists. On November 21, 1926 he professed his Passionist vows in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was ordained a priest in Union City, New Jersey on May 22, 1932. As a young man he had become interested in Spanish and after ordination spent a good deal of his ministry giving Spanish missions and retreats. In the beginning of 1967 he was asked by his superiors to go to Mexico but the climate prevented him from staying for any length of time. He was soon back at St. Gabriel’s Monastery, Brighton, Massachusetts preaching in Spanish
Father McDermott had been in Deaconess Hospital in Brookline, Massachusetts for six weeks with severe back ailments which was later determined to be a severe infection of the lungs. He died on September 5, 1967.