Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Duffy, Patrick

Pastor, military chaplain; born Booterstown, Ireland, 22 May 1814; died Melbourne, 27 July 1901, aged 87.

Patrick Duffy had been a student at Clongowes College before entering the Society, 15 August 1834, at Stonyhurst. His Jesuit studies were in France and Rome, and he was ordained in 1848. After ordination he worked first at Clongowes, and then in the Gardiner St parish, Dublin, 1865-88, engaged in pastoral work.

At the age of 74 he volunteered for the Australian mission, working in the parishes of Richmond, North Sydney and Hawthorn, 1888-92. His final years, 1892-01, were spent as spiritual father at Xavier College. He was regularly engaged in parish missions in Australia and New Zealand, and managed parishes for occasional absent clergy.

Duffy was a chaplain in the Crimean War, 1854-56, with the English army at Balaclava. His duty was to attend to the spiritual wants of the wounded and fever-stricken soldiers. At one stage his battalion had been ordered to the front, but the officer commanding had left orders that Duffy was to remain behind. The men refused to go to battle without Duffy. Many years later, when in Tasmania giving retreats, he attended a levee at Government House, and was recognised by the governor, Sir Robert Hamilton, as the man who saved his life when he was injured during the war. The governor was obviously very grateful and publicly proclaimed Duffy's action.

He was also the author of The Eleven-Gun Battery, a little treatise on the examen of conscience, popular in religious houses at the time. Duffy remained an energetic worker until his death, which resulted from an accidental fall while giving a retreat to the Sisters of Mercy, Fitzroy.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)