Thomas Frederick Price
St. Mary's Seminary |
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Thomas Frederick Price, MM (August 19, 1860 - September 12, 1919) was the American co-founder of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, better known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.[1]
Youth and education
Thomas Frederick Price was born in
As a youth, Price was deeply influenced by his parish priests (St. Thomas, Wilmington, North Carolina). One cleric who figured prominently in his early life was
With his religious background (especially the deep devotion of his mother to the
Price attended St. Charles College from January 1877 until his commencement on June 28, 1881. In September 1881, he entered
Early priesthood
Within the first year of his ordination, Price was appointed pastor of the few Catholics in Asheville and New Bern. He later obtained permission from
One of Price's tools for evangelization was the publication of the magazine Truth, which he began to edit and publish in April 1897.[3] In 1912, the magazine passed into the hands of the International Catholic Truth Society, with the guarantee that the Truth Society would enable the publication to reach its full potential. Fr. Price's active role in the Foreign Mission Seminary by this time made his continued involvement in the publication impossible.
In 1899, Price, along with his sister, Sister Mary Agnes of the Sisters of Mercy, founded a Catholic Orphanage on a large tract of land which he purchased in Nazareth, North Carolina. Price's plan was first to help the underprivileged of an area and thereby win the general population's favor, who would then be more inclined to listen to the missioner's message. (The location later became the site of the first Cardinal Gibbons Memorial High School and is now the site of Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral.)[4]
Following the success of the Nazareth Orphanage, Price organized summer catechizing teams of seminarians. Finally, in 1902, Price opened a missionary training house at Nazareth. It was a preparatory seminary whose sole purpose was the education and formation of missioners for the home missions. It was called Regina Apostolorum. Price directed the Regina Apostolorum and acted as its primary teacher and spiritual director.
Plans for a foreign mission seminary
As time went on, Price began to emphasize more and more often, in the pages of Truth, the need for a seminary to train young American men for foreign missions. At the same time,
After meeting with the Pope, Price traveled to Lourdes for the first time. During his stay at Lourdes, Price had a spiritual experience that he refers to in his diary: he maintained a special devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes and to Bernadette Soubirous until his death.
Returning to the United States, Price and Walsh began establishing the new seminary and the foreign mission society. After a brief stay at Hawthorne, New York, the property was purchased at Ossining, New York, for the site of the new foundation, the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (popularly known as Maryknoll).
Foreign missions begin
Price made a countrywide tour of America to gain support for the new endeavor. By 1918, three young priests (
This group of the first four American missioners in China arrived in Hong Kong in October 1918. They then settled down in Yeungkong (now called Yangjiang) on the South China Coast. Because of his age and its complexity, Price had great difficulty learning the Chinese language
Price also suffered from physical ailments. Towards the latter part of 1919, Price became seriously ill. As there were no adequate medical facilities in that area, he was brought to Hong Kong for hospitalization. After a trying trip, Price arrived in the British Colony and was immediately taken to St. Paul's Hospital in Causeway Bay, an institution conducted by the
A solemn requiem Mass was celebrated on 18 September 1919 at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral for his priestly soul's happy repose. At this ceremony, Bishop of the
In 1923, a French missioner returned to France with Price's heart and gave it to St. Bernadette's religious order, the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. It was placed in a niche in the wall near the saint's body in the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Nevers. It was Price's request, for he had a very great devotion to Sister Bernadette.[5] Price's body was exhumed in 1936 and transferred to Maryknoll Cemetery in Ossining, New York. In 1955, his remains, together with James A. Walsh's, were finally interred in the crypt below the Maryknoll Seminary Chapel.
In March 2012, the Diocese of Raleigh formerly opened a formal Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Father Thomas Price.[6]
Writings
- Bernadette of Lourdes(2013)
- The Lily of Mary (2013)
References
- ^ Maryknoll Fathers, The. "Thomas Frederick Price". Biography of Father Price. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
- ^ a b c Johnson, Philip G., "An Introduction to Father Thomas Frederick Price: The "Tar Heel Apostle", NC Catholic, February 27, 2013
- ^ a b c "Father Thomas F. Price", Maryknoll Mission Archives
- ^ "Fr. Thomas Price", Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral
- ^ a b c Smith, Jim; Downs, William (1978), Maryknoll Hong Kong Chronicle 1918 - 1975 (Chronicle), Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America
- ^ "Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Father Thomas Price", NC Catholic
Bibliography
- John T. Sedden, When Saints Are Lovers. The Spirituality of Maryknoll Founder Thomas F. Price, Liturgical Press (1997), 184 pages