Father James E. Coyle

Father James E. Coyle is often referred to as the Martyr of Birmingham. There is a great story behind it. Join me as we delve into it!

Image of Father Coyle courtesy of https://onevoicebhm.org/remembering-father-james-coyle

Father James E. Coyle was born in Ireland on March 23, 1873. He attended the Pontifical North American College in Rome and was ordained to the priesthood at the tender age of 23 on May 30, 1896. Later that year, he and another priest set sail for Mobile, Alabama, which was a "mission diocese" at the time, meaning that the percentage of Catholics at the time was a very low number - maybe a half a percent of the population. At that time, all of Alabama was one diocese - the Diocese of Mobile. during his time in Mobile, Father Coyle became a charter member of Mobile Council 666 of the Knights of Columbus.

Father Coyle was first assigned as an instructor at the McGill Institute for Boys. He would subsequently become the rector at the McGill Institute. In 1904, Father Coyle was appointed pastor of Saint Paul's Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Saint Paul's would eventually become the Cathedral for the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama, but not during Father Coyle's relatively short life.

As Pastor of Saint Paul's, Father Coyle succeeded Father Patrick O'Reilly. At the time, Birmingham was a young, but bustling town. It had steel mills that brought many people to the area for work. Many of those workers were from European countries, a significant number of whom were Catholic. At this point in time, Birmingham was larger than its closest major city, the City of Atlanta in Georgia.

While in Birmingham, Father Coyle served as Worthy Chaplain to Birmingham Council 635 of the Knights of Columbus. He emphasized Sunday Mass attendance, love for the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. During his time as pastor of Saint Paul's, Father Coyle had the opportunity to become acquainted with a young Ruth Stephenson. Ruth came to him with curiosity about the Catholic faith. Father Coyle answered her questions and, subsequently, brought her into the Church. Her father, Edwin Stephenson, was a Southern Methodist Episcopal minister of sorts. He was nicknamed the "Marrying Parson" because he would perform the marriage of anyone for a fee. He worked as a barber and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

At this time, there was a significant hatred towards Catholics for reasons known only to the haters. This hatred was led by the KKK and a secret society of anti-Catholics called the True Americans. During the last years of his life, Father Coyle was courageous and unwavering in his defense of the Catholic faith.

On August 11, 1921, Ruth Stephenson came to Father Coyle with a Puerto Rican man that she wanted to marry. His name was Pedro Gussman. He was 44 years old and was a dark-skinned Puerto Rican. He proudly boasted that he came from Castilian roots. He was a customer at Stephenson's barber shop and had worked in the Stephenson residence. Father Coyle performed the wedding ceremony.

Less than two hours later, Father Coyle was sitting on the front porch of the Rectory reading from his breviary, as was his custom, when Edwin Stephenson came to the rectory. He suspected that Father Coyle was hiding Ruth in the Rectory and asked Father Coyle if he knew where she was. At that point, Father Coyle said that he had just performed a wedding ceremony for Ruth and Pedro Gussman. Stephenson, who was already enraged that his only child had become Catholic, took out his pistol and fired three times into Farther Coyle's head.

Father Coyle was taken to Saint Vincent's Hospital, where he died on the operating table. He had been given last rites by another priest in the Rectory.

Stephenson went to the police department, only a block away from the Rectory and the Church, and turned himself in, saying that he had killed Father Coyle. The murder happened in front of many witnesses, many of which were not called to testify at the trial. He was reluctantly charged with the murder and was tried.

The trial was a sham as the judge, Hon. William E. Fort, was a Klansman as were four of Stephenson's five-man defense team (Hugo Black, a future Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was the lone holdout, although he would subsequently join the KKK).

The defense entered TWO different pleas - not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity - in the first, the defense claimed that the shooting was in self-defense and in the second, the defense argued that Strephenson was temporarily unable to distinguish right from wrong due to his rage. During the trial, with each of the Catholic witnesses, at the end of cross-examination, Justice Black would conclude by asking if they were Catholic, as if their being Catholic took away from their credibility (and it did, in the mind of at least one juror. The prosecution did nothing to attempt to rehabilitate these witnesses. Ruth Gussman was not called as a witness.

Stephenson was found not guilty by the vote of one juror. The verdict had a negative effect on Catholics in Alabama as it essentially become "open season" on Catholics and violence against Catholics essentially went largely unpunished. However, this was also the beginning of the end to the hatred of Catholics in Alabama.

Father Coyle is buried at Elmwood Cemetary in Birmingham with a ten-foot tall Celtric cross marking the spot. There are plans afoot to re-inter his body near the Cathedral of Saint Paul in downtown Birmingham.

Much of the information for this article came from https://fathercoyle.org and from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Coyle

Please visit our friends, Tony, Paulette and Mike Rock at the Rock Company Shop.