Donald Durbin Jr.

Patriarch of the American Frontier: the Life of Reverend Father Elisha John Durbin Donald Durbin Jr.

This is a book my mother wanted to write but never found time to do it. It is about "The Patriarch Priest of Kentucky," Father Elisha John Durbin, the Catholic priest who was also known as "The Apostle of Western Kentucky." When my mother died, I continued her work of researching the Durbin family ancestry, and we managed to acquire a lot of information on the beloved Father Durbin. He was a saintly priest whose life story needs to be memorialized for the world to read. This frontier priest outranked most of the clerics of his day. Father Durbin was a man of tremendous personal, physical and spiritual strength. By the end of his nearly lifelong ministry he estimated that he had traveled more than half a million miles on horseback. Over time, Father Durbin developed a craggy appearance due to climatic vagaries. Through the course of his ministry he built at least fifteen churches. During the Civil War his priority was attending to the souls of both Union and Confederate soldiers. He was a saintly man by most definitions.