John Christopher Drumgoole

John Christopher Drumgoole (August 15, 1816 – March 28, 1888) was an Irish American Roman Catholic priest who was known for his work in caring for and educating orphaned and abandoned children in New York City, especially homeless newsboys. In 1883, he founded Mount Loretto, an orphanage and vocational school for boys in a then rural section of Staten Island. It grew into a large complex that housed and educated tens of thousands of boys and girls in more than a century of existence. As of 2024, Drumgoole's Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, now named Catholic Charities of Staten Island, continues to run programs that benefit needy children and other Staten Island residents, on a portion of the Mount Loretto property.

John Christopher Drumgoole was born at Abbeylara near Granard, County Longford, Ireland, on August 15, 1816. His father John, a cobbler, died in 1822. The younger John came to the United States in 1824 at age 8 to join his mother Bridget, who had emigrated first. She worked as a maid, and he became a shoemaker to help support her. In 1838, he became a United States citizen. In 1844, he became sexton/janitor of St. Mary's, New York City's third Roman Catholic parish, founded in 1826 and located in the poor Lower East Side neighborhood. Drumgoole grew concerned for the many homeless and orphaned children who lived on the streets of New York City after the Great Irish Famine (1845–1852) and then the U. S. Civil War (1861–1865). For 21 years, he provided shelter for many of these children in the basement of the church. The cornerstone of the Manhattan building was laid in 1879. The plot of land, previously occupied by St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, cost $70,000. The nine story mission house cost $160,000 to build, and was opened in 1881. The Church of St. Joachim and St. Anne was constructed in 1891 on the grounds of Mount Loretto, to serve the children and staff of the institution. In addition to traditional schooling by the Sisters, Drumgoole introduced extensive vocational training at the Mission. Children at the St. Joseph's School at Mt. Loretto learned shoemaking, woodworking, baking and printing. They grew their own food, and raised poultry and livestock (including the last cows in New York City when they were sold in 1961 as the orphanage downsized). Drumgoole also organized a brass band. The church and the trade school were planned by him, and were constructed shortly after his death.

Drumgoole divided his time between the mission's facilities in Manhattan and at Mount Loretto. On Sunday, March 11, 1888, he boarded a Staten Island Railway train at the Pleasant Plains station near the orphanage, and rode it to St. George Terminal for the ferry to Manhattan. Upon arriving, he found that no ferries and no further trains were running because the Great Blizzard of 1888 had begun, with severe wind and snow. To return to Mount Loretto, he hired a horse and gig for a long ride through the blizzard. Though he arrived safely and continued to work, he developed a cold that progressed to exhaustion and pneumonia. He collapsed on March 26 while preparing to say Mass at the mission's city house, and died there on March 28. Drumgoole's will left everything he had to the mission, and Archbishop Michael Corrigan led the funeral in St. Patrick's Cathedral on Easter Monday, April 2. A funeral stagecoach, ferry and train carried Drumgoole's sealed casket back to Mount Loretto for burial. The statue was moved to Mount Loretto in 1920. The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin has been on its current site in the Pleasant Plains section of Staten Island since 1883. Mount Loretto, an orphanage for boys and later girls as well (1897), was run by the mission for many years. The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, now named Catholic Charities of Staten Island, continues to provide a variety of social services. The Catholic Church considers him a candidate for sainthood.