When the nearby South Tower collapsed, Judge was killed by the tsunami of rubble that burst into the North Tower lobby. Judge, then 68, clad in a white firefighters’ helmet and black coat, remained in the lobby and mezzanine of the Trade Center’s North Tower, praying for firefighters who rushed past him and up the stairs of the wounded building and for office workers plunging to their deaths outside, their bodies exploding like blood-filled balloons on the concrete plaza.
Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, Judge is still touted as a vivacious Catholic priest and heroic chaplain of the New York City fire department who refused to flee to safety after commercial jetliners hijacked by suicide jihadists crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.
Mychal Judge was displayed at his funeral on Sept.
