| Thomas Frederick Price | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1960 Aug 19 Wilmington, North Carolina |
| Died | 1919 Sept 12 St Paul’s Hospital, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong |
| Cause of death | Burst Appendix |
| Resting place | Maryknoll, Ossining, New York |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Missionary, bishop, priest |
| Years active | 1886—1919 |
| Title | Father |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Thomas Frederick Price (August 19, 1860 - September 12, 1919) was the co-founder of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, better known as the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.
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Price was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, the eighth child of Alfred and Clarissa Bond Price. His parents were converts to the Catholic faith, and he was raised as a devout Catholic in the midst of Southern apathy toward Catholicism. As a youth, Price was deeply influenced by the priests of his parish (St. Thomas, Wilmington, North Carolina). One priest who figured prominently in his early life was Bishop James Gibbons, newly appointed first Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina. Gibbons established his headquarters at St. Thomas Church; Price often served Mass for Gibbons and accompanied him on official trips throughout the Vicariate.
With his religious background (especially the deep devotion of his mother to the Blessed Virgin Mary), Price soon felt an attraction to the priesthood. He confided his interest to the parish priest, Fr. Mark Gross, and arrangements were made for him to enter St. Charles Seminary at Catonsville, Maryland, in August, 1876. On route to the seminary by ship, Price escaped death in the shipwreck of the 'Rebecca Clyde'. Price attributed his survival to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After the accident, he returned home until January 1877.
Price attended St. Charles' Seminary from January 1877, until his commencement on June 28, 1881. On September 1881, he entered St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 20, 1886, by Bishop Northrup at the pro-cathedral in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Both of Price's parents had died before his ordination.) Price was the first North Carolinian to be ordained to the priesthood, and he was assigned to missionary work in the eastern section of his native state.
Within the first year of his ordination, Price was appointed pastor of the few Catholics in and around the towns of Asheville and New Bern. Within a few years, he obtained permission from Bishop Haid, his ordinary, to begin a statewide evangelization program. His methods were influenced by Fr. Walter Elliott, a famous Paulist preacher.
One of Price's tools for evangelization was the publication of the magazine Truth, which he began to edit and publish in April 1897.
A second tool was the establishment of Nazareth Orphanage in 1898. Price's plan was first to help the underprivileged of an area and thereby win the favor of the general population who would then be more inclined to listen to the message of the missioner.
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. From 1902 to 1909, Price directed the Regina Apostolorum and acted as its primary teacher and spiritual director.
As time went on, Price began to emphasize more and more often in the pages of Truth the need of a seminary for the training of young American men for the foreign missions. At the same time, Rev. James Anthony Walsh, of Boston, was developing the same idea in the pages of The Field Afar. At the Eucharistic Congress in Montreal in 1910, the two priests met and began to formulate plans for the establishment of a seminary for foreign missioners. With the approval of the American hierarchy, the two priests traveled to Rome in June 1911, to receive final approval from Pope Pius X for their project.
After meeting with the Holy Father, Price traveled to Lourdes for the first time. During his stay at Lourdes, Price had a spiritual experience that he refers to in his personal 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 the plans for the establishment of the new seminary and the foreign mission society. After a brief stay at Hawthorne, New York, 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).
Price made an around-the-country tour of America to gain support for the new endeavor. By 1918, three young priests (Frs. James Edward Walsh, Francis Xavier Ford, and Bernard F. Meyer) were ready for the foreign missions in China. On September 7, Price went with them as superior to the new mission. From the time of the foundation of Maryknoll, Price had understood that Walsh was the one capable of administering and directing the seminary itself. Price himself had always hoped to be chosen as one of Maryknoll's first missioners, and his dream was realized.
This group of first four American missioners in China arrived in Hong Kong in Oct 1918. They then settled down in Yeungkong (now called Yangjiang) on the South China Coast. Because of his age, Price had great difficulty learning the Chinese language.
Fr Price also suffered from physical ailments. Towards the latter part of 1919, Fr 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, Fr Price arrived in the British Colony and was immediately taken to St. Paul’s Hospital in Causeway Bay, an institution conducted by the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartre. The long and arduous journey from Yeungkong to Hong Kong by primitive means of travel aggravated Fr. Price’s advanced and serious case of appendicitis. He entered the Hospital on 19 Aug 1919 and was operated on 8 Sept 1919. However, it was too late and on the 12 Sept, the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, he died as a result of a burst appendix. His body was buried in the priests’ plot in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Happy Valley, Hong Kong. The date of his death was rather significant for he had great devotion to Our Lady. He was only 59 years of age .[1]
A solemn requiem Mass was celebrated on the 18 Sept 1919 at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral for the happy repose of his priestly soul. At this ceremony, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, Fr Pozzoni, gave the last absolution and a large concourse of priests and Sisters attended[1]
In 1923, a French missioner returned to France with Father 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. This was Fr Price’s own request for he had a very great devotion to Sister Bernadette.[1] Father Price's body was exhumed in 1936 and transferred to Maryknoll Cemetery in Ossining, New York. In 1955, his remains, together with those of Bishop James A. Walsh, were finally interred in the crypt below the Maryknoll Seminary Chapel.