Father Peter Christopher Yorke (15 August 1864 in Galway

Galway

Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 - 4 April 1925 in San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

) was an Irish-American Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 priest and a noted Irish Republican and Labor activist in San Francisco was the youngest child of Gregory Yorke, a sea-captain, and his wife Brigid, née Kelly. He was pastor of St. Peter's in 1914.

The Yorke family were originally from Holland, where the name was spelled Jorke. Peter Yorke's grandfather, Christopher Yorke, came to Galway in the early 19th century, building lighthouses and breakwaters in Galway, Aran and Westport. Gregory Yorke died six months before Peter was born. In 1882, Yorke graduated from St. Jarlath's in Tuam. He then went to Maynooth, where he studied for 4 years before being adopted by the Diocese of San Francisco. He was ordained in 1887.

In San Francisco, he became the editor of The Monitor, an Irish Newspaper. In 1901, he supported the workers in a Teamsters

Teamsters

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....

 strike. In 1902, he founded and edited a local newspaper called The Leader.

A short street called Peter Yorke Way in San Francisco, which runs from the junction of Geary Boulevard and Gough Street to Post Street, is named after him. The headquarters of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the United States. It covers the City and County of San Francisco and the Counties of Marin and San Mateo...

 is located at 1 Peter Yorke Way.

Author of the best-selling text book The Ghosts of Bigotry, originally re-published in San Francisco 1913 from new plates, the originals having been destroyed in the Earthquake and Fire of 1906

1906 San Francisco earthquake

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...

. Genesis work of The Catholic Truth Society, in response to an anti-Catholic literary campaign by the American Protestant Association. A frank account of the "Black Myths" of English Protestant opposition to the Roman Catholic Church from the reign of Elizabeth the First through to Catholic Emancipation and the failed Ecclesiatical Titles Bill in the 19th Century. Concluding chapter sets the scene of Catholic resurgence in the USA. Publisher: The Text Book Publishing Company, 641 Stevenson Street.

Legacy

Yorke is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery

Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma

Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California is an American Roman Catholic cemetery operated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Established in 1887 on of a former potato farm, it is the oldest and largest cemetery established in Colma to serve the needs of San Francisco...

 in Colma, California

Colma, California

Colma is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, at the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 1,792 at the 2010 census. The town was founded as a necropolis in 1924....

.