1850 – 1878 (November 16)
Thomas Mark Darragh was born in New York in 1850, the son of Charles Darragh and Catharine McDonald. He was the younger brother of Father James Darragh, also a member of the American Province. Thomas entered the novitiate at Villanova, Pennsylvania, on January 21, 1871. In August of that year he left the novitiate for Washington in order to join the secular clergy. He was sent to the American College in Rome, but left after a brief time and returned to the United States.
He entered the United States Army on September 16, 1872 under the name, ‘Thomas Dodge’, and saw duty in the Indian Wars out west. He was honorably discharged on June 30, 1877, and returned east.
Thomas asked to be re-admitted to the Order, was accepted, and began his novitiate on November 12, 1877. Before the year’s completion he became seriously ill, and was professed on his deathbed on November 10, 1878. He died six days later of an enlargement of the heart, on November 16, 1878. He was 28 years old.
He was the first member of the Province to be buried in the new community cemetery at Villanova, blessed that same day, November 20, 1878, by Prior Provincial Pacifico Neno, O.S.A. Father Christopher Mc Evoy, O.S.A. was celebrant of the funeral Mass and delivered the eulogy. When, nine years later, his brother, Father James Darragh, died on July 7, 1887, he was buried beside his brother.
On May 30, 1909, Thomas’ grave was visited and decorated by Colonel James Post and fifty members of the veteran’s group, Grand Army of the Republic.
