R.I.P. Chaplain William Davitt
On this Memorial Day
On November 11, 1918, one hour and fifteen minutes before the cessation of hostilities, Father William F. Davitt, chaplain with the 125th Infantry in France was killed by the explosion of a shell. He was 32.
Lt. Col. Davitt, a native of Holyoke, was a priest of the Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts. He was a stalwart football player at Holy Cross College. After graduation in 1907 he entered the seminary and was ordained in 1911. After a few years of parish work he discerned a vocation to the military chaplaincy and was commissioned in 1917. At the time he wrote, “I am in it now for all that is in me, for God, country, and the salvation of souls, I am prepared to sacrifice all.”1
Reproduced below is the letter to his mother written by his Division Chaplain. It appeared in the Springfield Morning News, December 12, 1918.
A memorial service was held December 7, 1918 at St. Anne’s Church in Lenox, Bishop Thomas Beaven presiding. Father Davitt’s mortal remains are buried in Calvary Cemetery, Holyoke. May he rest in peace.
Springfield, MA Morning Call, Dec. 8, 1918, 7.
I think I just read a letter about a saint!