The first confirmed casualty of the September 11th attacks, Mychal Judge was killed inside the World Trade Center's North Tower due to falling debris from the collapsing South Tower.
James NachtweyAfter the South Tower collapsed, first responders carried Mychal Judge’s body from the North Tower lobby.
Father Mychal Judge was not a firefighter. He was the chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. But on Sept. 11, 2001, Judge followed firefighters into the World Trade Center, and sadly lost his life.
The first confirmed casualty of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Judge was offering help and prayers inside the North Tower when the South Tower collapsed. A wave of debris came cascading down, and Judge was killed.
First responders carried Judge’s body from the lobby of the North Tower just moments before it collapsed as well — meaning that, in death, Judge had saved all of their lives.
Father Mychal Judge, The Popular FDNY Chaplain
Born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, Mychal Judge became a Franciscan friar at a young age. As a boy, he enjoyed visiting the friars of the St. Francis of Assisi Church during his trips to Manhattan to shine shoes and, as a teenager, he soon began the process to become a friar himself. As a young Franciscan priest in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Judge soon showed his willingness to rush into the heart of danger when he responded to a tense situation: an armed man was threatening to shoot his wife and baby.
Without hesitation, Judge climbed a ladder wearing his long brown robe to speak with the man, who had locked himself in the attic of his home.
“We waited five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Sweating bullets, waiting for that gunshot,” Judge’s friend Father Michael Duffy, who was also on the scene, recalled to NPR in 2011. “The next thing you know, 20 minutes later, the front door opens, and out comes the wife holding the baby, the man with the gun, and Mychal Judge with his arm around him.”
St. Anthony MessengerThe funeral for Mychal Judge was the first after 9/11.
In the 1980s, Judge was assigned to Manhattan’s St. Francis of Assisi Church, the same church he had admired as a boy. There, he offered support to people with AIDS during the AIDS crisis, as well as the homeless, the injured, people struggling with addiction, and anyone else who needed a supportive hand. In 1992, Judge then became a chaplain for the New York City Fire Department, where his kindness and warmth made a quick impression.
“He could go into the firehouse, have a cup of coffee, have a meal, listen to all the talk, watch the ballgame, hear your problems, talk about anything you want,” fireman Jimmy Boyle recalled to NPR. “But when he said Mass in the firehouse, I always felt when he got to the Eucharist, he just transformed himself. He became like Christ. He was just so pious.”
As Boyle told NPR, Judge was often the first to lend a hand after a disaster, whether it was a house fire or a plane crash, like the devastating crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996. And so, when reports of a plane hitting the World Trade Center reached the Engine 1/Ladder 24 fire station, across the street from St. Agassi, Mychal Judge quickly rushed to the scene.
The Tragic Death Of 9/11 ‘Victim 0001’
At 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Then, at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower. Both aircrafts had been hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists. A third hijacked plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was heading toward the Pentagon, and a fourth hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, would crash in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers fought back.
But as the World Trade Center burned, first responders had no idea that the day would end with nearly 3,000 fatalities, including 400 of their own. They were focused on saving lives. And Father Mychal Judge rushed to the World Trade Center with a group of off-duty firemen to help where he could.
Wikimedia CommonsMychal Judge rushed to the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, where he’d become the first confirmed victim.
At Ground Zero, Judge prayed for the dead — including those who were jumping from the high floors of the towers to escape the smoke and flames. A crew of documentary filmmakers, who were making a film about the New York City Fire Department, captured Judge’s final actions that day.
“[If] you look closely at that film, you’ll see his lips moving,” Father Duffy told NPR. “Now, for those of us who know him, he wasn’t one that talked to himself. He was praying. And absolving people as they fell to their death.”
Then, at 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed. Crushing debris from the 110-story building smashed downward into the North Tower lobby with the force of an explosion. Judge was hit — and killed. His body was found by NYPD lieutenant Bill Cosgrove, who would later credit Judge with saving his life.
“I went a couple of steps, and I hit something. And I told the fire chief that somebody was on the floor,” Cosgrove recalled to NPR in 2011. “And he put the light on him — and I remember him saying, ‘Oh my god, it’s Father Mike.'”
Cosgrove, alongside several others, helped carry Judge’s body out of the North Tower, a moment captured by Reuters photographer Shannon Stapleton. Just a short time later, the North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m.
“[I]t’s my firm belief that the only reason I’m here today is because of him,” Cosgrove stated. “…everybody you see in that picture was saved. And I’m sure had he not been there, I would have been trying to look for other people. And when that North Tower fell, I would have been right in the middle of it, just like the rest of the firemen were, and some of my cops.”
The Funeral of Father Mychal Judge
Just days after the 9/11 terrorist attack, as fires continued to smolder at Ground Zero, 3,000 people crowded into St. Francis of Assisi Church for the funeral of Father Mychal Judge
Wikimedia CommonsMychal Judge’s name is one of the 2,983 names inscribed at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.
Judge’s friend, Father Duffy gave the homily.
“Mychal Judge’s body was the first one released from Ground Zero. His death certificate has the number ‘1’ on the top,” Duffy told the crowd of mourners. “Of the thousands of people who perished in that terrible holocaust, why was Mychal Judge number one? And I think I know the reason.”
Duffy continued: “[In] the next few weeks, we’re going to have names added, name after name of people, who are being brought out of that rubble. And Mychal Judge is going to be on the other side of death… to greet them… And he’s going to greet them with that big Irish smile… he’s going to take them by the arm and the hand and say, ‘Welcome, I want to take you to my Father.’
After reading about Father Mychal Judge, one of many heroes at Ground Zero on 9/11, learn how Rick Rescorla, the vice president of security at Morgan Stanley, saved 2,700 lives that day. Next, discover the harrowing story behind Marcy Borders, the 9/11 survivor known as “The Dust Lady.”
