{{short description|American priest}} {{Other people|James Martin}} {{for|the Jesuit priest born in 1960|James Martin (priest, born 1960)}} '''James Aloysius Martin''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=SJ}} (August 30, 1902 – October 1, 2007) was an American Jesuit priest, professor and athletic director. Martin was the world's oldest Jesuit priest at the time of his death at the age of 105 at the Georgetown University Jesuit Residence in Washington, DC<ref name=wp>{{cite news |first=Matt|last=Schudel|title=James A. Martin, 105; World's Oldest Jesuit |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/05/AR2007100502709.html|newspaper= Washington Post |date=2007-10-06 |access-date=2008-01-17}}</ref>

==Early life== James A. Martin was born on August 30, 1902, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.<ref name=wp/> His father worked as a musical director at the family's local Roman Catholic church. All three of Martin's sisters eventually became Catholic nuns.<ref name=wp/>

Martin was described as an accomplished youth athlete and was offered several college athletic scholarships. He was also offered the chance to play baseball on the professional level.<ref name=wp/> However, Martin chose instead to study to become a Catholic priest in the Society of Jesus religious order, which is more commonly called the Jesuits.<ref name=wp/> Martin began his studies to become a priest in the early 1920s. He initially entered a seminary in Yonkers, New York, before transferring later to another seminary in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts.<ref name=wp/>

Martin received a Master's degree in theology from Weston College, which is now called the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, in 1926.<ref name=wp/> However, he did not receive his bachelor's degree from Weston College until 1927, a year after earning his master's.<ref name=wp/>

===In the Philippines===

From 1928 to 1931, Martin taught English, Latin and Greek at the Ateneo de Manila High School, a Jesuit-run school in Manila, the Philippines.<ref name=wp/><ref name=admu>{{cite speech |title=A Homily Delivered during the Sesquicentennial Launch |author=Bienvenido Nebres, S.J. |date=2007-08-05 | location=Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines |url=http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&aid=3938 |access-date=2008-04-03 }}</ref> He is credited with introducing modern basketball to the Philippines,<ref name=admu/> and coaching the Ateneo Blue Eagles basketball team to two NCAA championships, an accomplishment he spoke of fondly until near the end of his life.<ref name=admu/> Among the players Martin coached on the Ateneo Blue Eagles was the future Senator Ambrosio Padilla.<ref name=admu2>{{cite web |title=Fr. James A. Martin, SJ, 105 |author=Bienvenido Nebres, S.J. |url=http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&sec=39&aid=4249 |publisher=Ateneo de Manila University |date=2007-10-03 |access-date=2008-04-03 }}</ref> He also coached the Ateneo de Manila High School's baseball team.<ref name=wp/>

He returned to the United States in 1931 to study theology at Woodstock College in Maryland from 1931 until 1934.<ref name=wp/>

==Jesuits== James A. Martin was officially ordained a Jesuit priest in 1934.<ref name=wp/> In 1939, Martin was appointed the assistant athletic director and assistant dean of men at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.<ref name=wp/> He left Georgetown after one year to take the position of athletic director at St. Joseph's College, now called St. Joseph's University, in Philadelphia for two years.<ref name=wp/>

Martin left St. Joseph's College after two years to serve as a chaplain for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.<ref name=wp/> He served with the Army Air Forces in Italy, North Africa and France.<ref name=wp/> He remained in Europe after World War II to help raise money to rebuild damaged or destroyed Jesuit schools and churches.<ref name=wp/>

Martin returned to the United States in 1946. He worked as the chairman of the Department of Theology at the University of Scranton from 1946 until 1949.<ref name=wp/> He simultaneously worked as a University of Scranton student counselor during this same time.<ref name=wp/>

He moved to back Washington in 1949 where he became a religion teacher and guidance counselor at Gonzaga College High School.<ref name=wp/> Martin led spiritual retreat programs and meetings at churches around the Washington metropolitan area as part of a Jesuit "mission band" during the early 1950s.<ref name=wp/>

Martin became the founding director of the Loyola Retreat House, which overlooks the Potomac River in Charles County, Maryland, from 1955 to 1964.<ref name=wp/> He oversaw the planning and building of the retreat house, which sits on {{convert|235|acre|km2}} of land.<ref name=wp/> He spent much of the rest of his priesthood conducting Jesuit led spiritual retreats and outreach programs.

Martin lived at the Jesuit residence on the campus of Georgetown University from 1974 until his death in 2007.<ref name=wp/> He worked as the director of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington's Apostleship of Prayer, which encourages daily prayer, from 1975 until 1983.<ref name=wp/> He also worked as a consultant for the Christian Family Movement.<ref name=wp/>

His last official assignment was as at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Alexandria, Virginia, as a pastoral assistant in 1983. Martin retired in 1989.<ref name=wp/>

Martin, along with 41 other centenarians, were honored in 2006 at the city of Washington's annual celebration of residents over the age of 100.<ref name=wp/><ref name=wp2>{{cite news |first=Sue Anne |last=Pressley Montes|title=Joie de Vivre |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/01/AR2006100101082_pf.html|newspaper= Washington Post |date=2006-10-02 |access-date=2008-01-17}}</ref>

==Death== James A. Martin died of pneumonia at the Jesuit Residence at Georgetown University on October 1, 2007.<ref name=wp/> He was 105 years old.

Just two weeks before Martin's death, he was visited by Ateneo de Manila University president Bienvenido Nebres, who gave him a jacket of the Ateneo basketball team that he had coached some 70 years earlier.<ref name=admu2/> Martin was said to have worn the jacket to the evening community Mass.<ref name=admu2/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{cite web |title=Fr. James A. Martin, SJ, 105 (with photos of Fr. Martin circa September, 2007) |author=Bienvenido Nebres, S.J. |url=http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&sec=39&aid=4249 |publisher=Ateneo de Manila University |date=2007-10-03 |access-date=2008-04-03 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, James A.}} Category:1902 births Category:2007 deaths Category:20th-century American Jesuits Category:21st-century American Jesuits Category:American men centenarians Category:Sportspeople from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Category:Saint Joseph's Hawks Category:University of Scranton faculty Category:Boston College School of Theology and Ministry alumni Category:Religious leaders from Washington, D.C. Category:Georgetown University people Category:American expatriates in the Philippines Category:Academic staff of Ateneo de Manila University Category:Basketball people in the Philippines Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Washington, D.C. Category:United States Army Air Forces officers Category:World War II chaplains Category:Woodstock College alumni Category:Catholics from Pennsylvania Category:Military personnel from Pennsylvania